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Texas Jury Strikes Down Man's Claim to Own the Interactive Web

Posted by samzenpus on from the man-who-didn't-own-the-world dept.

ackthpt writes "Sir Tim Berners-Lee traveled to a courtroom in East Texas to give his testimony on how, if upheld, the Eolas Technologies & University of California patent on Web Interactivity could prove to be a major threat to the Internet as it's known today. The Jury deliberated only a few hours before invalidating the patent in question. In a victory Tweet Berners-Lee said, 'Texas jury agreed Eolas 906 patent invalid. Good thing too!' Google, Amazon, Apple, Adobe and a host of other companies, with representatives present, must have given a Texas-size sigh of relief."

2 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. What? East Texas Jury? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Satan, satan, please check your realm. Is it frozen over or what? Some East Texas jury found for the defendant in a patent law suite. Wondering what happened and how a random act of sanity struck East Texas. I know those guys were upset about their main Rick Perry being laughed off the national stage. Are they taking the first baby steps to acquire some kind of respectability?

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:What? East Texas Jury? by flanders123 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If they are so familiar with the topic, then why do they side with crazy so frequently?

      One theory I've heard is this "industry" is a huge boon for the town. All the local businesses (false fronts and not) setting up shop, all the lawyers flying in and out of town...this puts big $$ into the local economy. The region knows they own this niche market, and want the customers to return.

      Its no different than locals supporting regional activities that could be questionable to the big picture....such as for argument's sake, big oil, coal mining, big corn, improper fishing, etc.