Microsoft loses big in browser infringement case
WinInfo | at | by Mike
A jury in a federal court in Chicago handed Microsoft a whopping $521 million legal defeat Monday after deciding that the company infringed on a Web browser-related patent owned in part by the University of California. The little-reported case centers on technologies that let allow browser add-ons such as plug-ins, applets, and ActiveX controls possible. The patent protecting this technology was awarded to the University of California and inventors Michael Doyle, David Martin and Cheong Ang in 1998; Doyle left the University and started a company called Eolas Technology, which became the exclusive licensee of the patented Web browser technology. Eolas originally sued the software giant in 1999, and the Regents of the University of California joined the lawsuit a year later.