The case, which has drawn harsh criticism from creator of the World Wide Web Tim Berners Lee, has been referred back to a lower court for re-trial after Eolas’ claimed ownership of web page plug-in technology was questioned.
A US jury awarded Eolas $520.6m in damages in 2003 after it found Microsoft had violated patents owned by Eolas in IE. Microsoft launched an appeal after Berners-Lee warned of substantial economic and technical damage to the web should the court’s decision stand.
Initially, though, it seemed Microsoft was willing to abide by the lower court’s ruling.
Last June, Microsoft filed a 174-page document with the US Court of Appeals that claimed enough prior art existed to invalidate Eolas’ claim and the jury’s ruling against Microsoft.
The company is expected to use that document as the basis for a retrial. In a statement, Microsoft said: Today’s reversal gives Microsoft the opportunity to tell the jury the whole story of how this technology was developed and to present evidence that shows Eolas did not invent this technology, and that it was developed by others.
Eolas actually licensed the disputed technology from the University of California.
Microsoft did not get everything its own way, though, losing on two key points. The court ruled the patent owned by Eolas could apply to programs that could run independently, such as spellchecking and dynamic link libraries, a move that potentially broadens the case.
The court also ruled that foreign distributions of IE are covered by US patent laws and, therefore, subject to the disputed patent.
