While it has not received much attention, the recent decision of the USPTO to uphold the Eolas patent on using a browser to execute a program on a remote computer is a big deal, not just for Microsoft, which is involved in current litigation with Eolas, but for the whole Internet community.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) had joined Microsoft in requesting the re-exam, and many other companies have substantial stakes in the issue.

Financial analyst Robert Green of Briefing.com (subscription required) notes: "It is hard to imagine the implications for the internet, if the Eolas patent is eventually viewed as not only valid, but strong enough for Eolas to demand royalty payments from any internet company that wants to use an embedded applet in a browser web page."

The request for re-examination was based on the existence of prior art, but the examiner ruled that the examples cited were insufficient to meet the applicable test. I suspect strongly (but am not tech-literate enough to know for sure) that the KSR petition for cert just took a jump in importance.

posted by James DeLong @ 5:40 PM | Patents

Link to this Entry | Printer-Friendly | Email a Comment | Post a Comment(0)