Eolas patent on Web plug-in technology rejected

By Steve Malone

Posted on 20 Aug 2004 at 10:15

The controversial Eolas Technologies patent looks like it is about to be rescinded by the US Patent Office. The office has confirmed that it has rejected all of the 10 patent claims that it re-examined.

The patent office review follows a multimillion dollar court case. Eolas was awarded the patent 5,838,906 in 1998 which governed the embedding of small programs within a browser. Eolas has claimed that it not only covered Active-X controls but also a whole host of technologies which are currently in use on the internet including Macromedia's Flash.

Eolas has sued Microsoft alleging that the use of plug-ins within the Internet Explorer browser infringed their patent. Eolas won the case after a jury found that Microsoft's use of plug-ins did infringe the patent. The court ruled that Microsoft should pay $521 million in damages and costs. Microsoft is appealing the case and asked the patent office to re-examine the patent itself.

A Microsoft spokesperson commented: 'This action, which is another step in the Patent Office's reconsideration of the Eolas patent, is not out of the ordinary. We have maintained all along that, when scrutinised closely, the Eolas patent would be ruled invalid.'