US PTO orders re-examinaiton of Eolas patent

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 09:57:52 +0900
From: Daniel Weitzner <djweitzner () w3 org>
Subject: US PTO orders re-examinaiton of Eolas patent
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>

Hi Dave,


Important news, but only one step. The questions now:
-what will the PTO do?
-will browser vendors still feel they need to deviate from Web standards in 
order to avoid infringing the patent?

Best,

Danny (currently in Tokyo)

Wednesday, November 12, 2003 · Last updated 11:19 a.m. PT

Gov't orders re-examination of Net patent

By TED BRIDIS
AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER

WASHINGTON -- In an unusual move, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
is reconsidering a patent affecting Internet pages that critics contend
could disrupt millions of Web sites.

Citing "a substantial outcry from a widespread segment of the affected
industry," deputy patent commissioner Stephen G. Kunin ordered the
agency's examiners to reconsider the patent they awarded in November
1998 to three researchers at the University of California.

Kunin described the case as "an extraordinary situation." The patent
office has ordered such re-examinations only 151 times since 1981 and
issues about 180,000 patents each year.

The patent - No. 5,838,906 - affects how Internet sites build into Web
pages small interactive programs that power everything from banner ads
to interactive customer service. Eolas Technologies Inc., which was
founded by one of the inventors and has licensed the patent exclusively,
has begun enforcing its claims and recently won a $520 million jury
award against Microsoft Corp., which quickly appealed the judgment.

Eolas said Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser software - used by
the vast majority of Internet users - violated its patent. Microsoft has
pledged to redesign its browser early in 2004 in ways that will require
Web surfers to click on a dialogue box when they visit a site that
employs one of the specialized programs.

Last month, the inventor of the World Wide Web urged the patent office
to re-examine the patent's validity. Tim Berners-Lee said he worried
that Microsoft's redesign "would render millions of Web pages and many
products of independent software developers incompatible." He also
feared that Web developers would respond with their own tweaks that
ignore long-standing Web standards.

Kunin's Oct. 30 order was based on claims by Berners-Lee and others that
patent examiners may not have adequately considered so-called "prior
art" that suggested the researchers' ideas were not new. Kunin wrote
that because of those claims, "a substantial new question of
patentability exists."

A patent spokeswoman, Brigid Quinn, said the re-examination could take a
year, but Eolas is permitted to enforce the disputed patent during that
period. The patent office took just over four years to award the patent
originally.
--
Daniel J. Weitzner                              +1.617.253.8036 (MIT)
World Wide Web Consortium                       +1.202.364.4750 (DC)
Technology & Society Domain Leader              <djweitzner () w3 org>
http://www.w3.org/People/Weitzner.html




-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/