Eolas Ruling Swings Back To University Of California

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued its final ruling in favor of the University of California in its patent dispute with Microsoft. At issue is a technology used for launching certain applications in Web browsers. The technology was developed at the University of California at San Francisco and licensed to a company called Eolas Technologies. Eolas and the university had earlier won a $521 million judgment against Microsoft for violating the patent in its software, but that ruling was appealed on the grounds that the patent was not valid. Despite a preliminary ruling in which the Patent and Trademark Office indicated its leaning toward Microsoft’s position on the Eolas patent, the final ruling upholds all of the university’s claims. The ruling rejects the assertions of both Microsoft and the World Wide Web Consortium that the patent relies on “prior art.” The case now returns to district court for trial.

Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 September 2005 (sub. req’d)