Plug-in use of web browsers violates patent?!?!

Sargeras · Post by **Sargeras** » October 9, 2003, 6:09 pm

September 25: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5082066.html

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Filed in 1999, the Eolas case drew international attention last month, when a U.S. District Court ruled that Microsoft's IE browser violated Eolas' Patent No. 5,838,906. The patent, filed on Oct. 17, 1994, and granted Nov. 17, 1998, covers a system that launches an application within a Web page.

The jury found that IE infringed on the patent through its inclusion of Microsoft's ActiveX technology, which Web authors use to launch and run plug-in applications such as Java applets, Adobe Acrobat documents and Macromedia Flash movies. Without ActiveX, the Microsoft browser would be unable to fully render a significant proportion of pages on the Web as well as on many corporate intranets.
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Patent link: http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parse ... PN/5838906

Oct. 7: Microsoft tweaks Explorer to address ruling
Oct. 8: Eolas files motion to enjoin IE

Microsoft owes this guy $521 million, and if this passes, web designers and webmasters everywhere are fucked because we can't continue to use plug-ins.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » October 9, 2003, 6:30 pm

Patent law is largely fucked up because it covers "ideas" without any real implementation. Sooner or later some bullshit patent that affects the right wanker in politics will force a change....

Karae · Post by **Karae** » October 9, 2003, 7:06 pm

I saw something like this before...a company that had a patent for a 3 dimensional chat interface which represented users with Avatars was trying to sue all FPS and MMORPG companies. In the end the judge said that patents weren't intended to be that broad and threw the case out.

Melrin_Specclaster · Post by **Melrin_Specclaster** » October 14, 2003, 5:36 pm

1 click buying is patented. It's all fucked up, somebody got a patent for the 'up and down motion of a seesaw'. Give me a fucking break. You got a patent for GRAVITY. The fact this shit stands up in court boggles the mind. Shows how screwed up the court system is, but hey, thats nothing new.