W3C sides with Microsoft against Eolas patent

“The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has taken up Microsoft Corp.’s cause in a patent infringement lawsuit by urging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to invalidate the related patent ‘in order to prevent substantial economic and technical damage to the operation of (the) World Wide Web.’

In a long letter sent Tuesday by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee to James Rogan, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, Berners-Lee claims that ‘prior art’ — a legal term referring to technology in existence at the time a patent is applied for — proves U.S. Patent number 5,838,906 (the ‘906 patent) is invalid and that the USPTO should therefore re-examine the case for issuing the patent in the first place.

Last August, a jury in Chicago ordered Microsoft to pay US$520.6 million in damages to Eolas Technologies Inc. and the University of California, the holders of the ‘906 patent, which covers the technology allowing interactive content to be embedded in a Web site.

Though the Redmond, Wash., software company is appealing the ruling, it is also making changes to Internet Explorer (IE) that may affect a ‘large number of existing Web pages,’ the W3C said in a statement Wednesday that accompanied a copy of Berners-Lee’s letter.”