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Invalidation of Eolas's Web Patent Claims Upheld
New submitter Ajay Anand writes with news that Eolas's web patents are really dead (the infamous browser plugin patent that forced Internet Explorer to change how it activated plugins). After Eolas sued a number of companies, last fall a jury found the patents invalid; Eolas naturally mounted an appeal. But a panel of judges simply affirmed the jury decision (PDF). A quiet ending to a decade of patent trolling.
Do they have to now give back the money they extorted?
If not, they won.
If if what you say is true, and I'm not sure it is, you have completely missed the point. Eolas was awarded bogus patents. They did not "invent" anything that should have be patentable.
Last I checked it was the State that paid for judges, court officers, court facilities, jury expenses, etc. It matters because tax payer money was expended supporting a series of shameless private money-grabs through through to its (some would say inevitable) conclusion. The time and money expended from public coffers could have better been spent on legal matters of public worth.
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button