October 2005
Microsoft Suffers Loss In Web Browser Patent Dispute
In 2003 a jury in the US District Court in the Northern District of Illinois decided that Microsoft had infringed a web browser patent owned by Eolas which allows software to interact with browsers. Microsoft was ordered to pay $521 million in damages.
Microsoft had tried to defend the allegation by saying the original patent was invalid because the technology was anticipated and obvious as there was already available prior art in the form of a web browser invented by Pei-Yuan Wei in 1993 called Viola.
The matter went to the Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit which said that the lower court should not have rejected Microsoft's defence outright and so sent the case back to the district court for a further hearing to establish whether the viola browser defence was valid. The outcome of this is still pending.
However, last week the US Patent and Trademark Office gave some indication as to the likely outcome by ruling that the Eolas patent is valid as the patent examiner wrote, "the [Viola browser] does not teach nor fairly suggest the instant [Eolas] invention."
Briffa comment:
It seems unlikely that Microsoft will be able to wriggle out of its latest legal dispute, however, the implication of this judgment may have far reaching consequences for other browser makes and internet users who could be infringing the patent every time they use their browsers.