Feds reject Eolas browser patent

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Waaayyyy off

<>

You know, of course, that this is a completely invalid argument.

1) Prior art.
Plenty of examples of this.. Why, just think of any operating system. Let's consider Unix:

f = fork();
if (f == 0) // child process
exec (helper app)

That's about all it takes to "violate" the Eolas "patent". (Well, a bit more complicated than that, but I'll spare the details..)


2) Defense of patent.
Where was Eolas when W3C (etc) was making web standards? You know, the smart thing to do to enforce their patent would be to say "hey, we have a patent on this.. and if you want to use it in your technology, you'll have to pay us royalties." Eolas filed for the patent in 1994, and was granted it in 1998 (I believe). Yet they stayed silent the entire time.

3) Market manipulation.
If Eolas' patent holds (which, let's just for the sake of argument say it does).. and they only sue Microsoft for patent violation.. which it looks like they may do (in fact, I've heard they would offer OSS products a royalty-free license in perpetuity). Then I think they are very good candidates to be sued under antitrust (or similar.. don't know US law) law..

Posted by: d_jedi   Posted on: 03/06/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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