Microsoft settles EOLAS patent
August 2nd, 2007 by Gen KanaiDale Dougherty of O’Reilly writes about the settlement of the landmark EOLAS patent, which he was personally involved in as an expert witness previously. The EOLAS patent is a critical one for everyone on the Internet because it forced Microsoft to change the way Active-X worked in the browser, which ended up affecting millions of Internet users all over the world and especially all the web users of South Korea, (not to mention that the judgment awarded to the EOLAS patent holder was a not-insignificant $521M.) The fact that there is information about prior art, and that Microsoft may be settling out of court, is troubling.
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Well so far it proves to me that buying a patent is a waste of money. Its just free money to our governments and a useless peice of paper to most businesses. The one with the money just has to make you run out of funds and legally steal it from you. One of the reason the phrase ” we live in a sick world” most likely comes from. Proof again you can’t trust the law and courts. the patent you buy is just like a paper weight . Proof that the government that issues it , doesn’t want to up hold what they issued. It definately not its weight in gold. Right now I honestly see no reason for any one to waste their time and money to buy one ,when it just really does look like a useless paper weight . Once again microsoft gets away with it