RE: Appeal will follow

Because Microsoft has $40 billion in its bank account, the 50/50 odds
are very managable.  However, for a small-to-medium size company that
depends on ActiveX technology to be present in Internet Explorer, these
kinds of odds are pretty scary.

For this judgement to be reverse, someone is going to need to find prior
art.  When looking for prior art, it's important to read and understand
the claims in the Eolas patent.  Here's the patent description:

http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&
p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='5838906'.WKU.&OS=PN/5838906
&RS=PN/5838906

The patent was filed on October 17, 1994, so prior art before October
17, 1993 will invalidate the patent.  Prior art between October 17, 1993
and October 17, 1994 may invalidate the patent.

Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: public-web-plugins-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-web-plugins-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Stolowitz, Micah
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 4:35 PM
To: Public-Web-Plugins@W3. Org
Subject: RE: Appeal will follow



Doubtless an appeal will follow in the Eolas case (to the Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as in all patent cases).  Patent
infringement judgments are reversed (overturned) in fully 50% of the
cases appealed (or more, depending on who you ask, and how you interpret
the statistics). That will take a year or more.

-Micah

Received on Friday, 29 August 2003 17:08:54 UTC