Eolas Verdict Impact, Be Suit Settled

A recent patent-infringement verdict could lead to significant alterations in Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft has warned. Possibilities include altering or removing support for certain plug-in technologies, which could force Web developers to change their pages and could make the use of interactive Web technologies, such as Macromedia’s Flash, less common or more difficult for end users.

In addition, Microsoft settled with antitrust plaintiff Be for US$23 million, and was ordered to search archived e-mails for information relating to antitrust allegations by Burst.com.

Eolas Verdict Could Affect IE

In an ad hoc meeting with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on Aug. 19, Microsoft representatives warned about the effects of a recent patent infringement verdict.

Earlier in August, an Illinois jury determined that IE violated a patent owned by Eolas Technologies and the University of California. Broadly speaking, patent 5,838,906 covers the ability of a Web browser to launch and execute interactive programs embedded within a Web page. IE’s support for plug-ins-including not only Microsoft’s own ActiveX controls but also third-party technologies such as Macromedia Flash applications, the Adobe PDF viewer, Java applets, and players for RealNetworks and QuickTime streaming media files-could be interpreted as infringing on the patent. The jury awarded the plaintiffs US$520.6 million for patent infringement spanning the time period between Nov. 1998 and Sept. 2001, but at press time the court had not decided whether Microsoft may continue to use the patented technology.