Oh this has just got to tick off MS a little bit. It seems that Microsoft has in fact, lost the Eolas patent case after all. Better luck next time, guys.

Striking a blow to Microsoft, the U.S. Patent Office this week reaffirmed a key Web-browsing patent that the software maker is accused of infringing.

In a decision made public Wednesday, the patent office upheld the validity of a patent held by the University of California and its Eolas Technology spinoff. In 2003, a jury awarded more than $500 million in damages to the university and Eolas, but an appeals court this year partially upheld Microsoft’s appeal, saying the company should be able to present evidence that similar inventions predated Eolas’ patent application. [Read the rest]