Microsoft was awarded another victory from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today regarding the on going dispute with Eolas and the University of California. While the University of California and Eolas aren't too happy about this decision, just about everyone else is.
There are a total of three office actions regarding the Microsoft & Eolas case. With Microsoft now holding two victories that leave only one more to go. Afterwards the Eolas patent will be ruled invalid. Not only is this good for Microsoft, but for different web browsers makers such as Mozilla and Opera. If this patent isn't ruled invalid it could force web browser makers to acquire a license. That is if they want to run applications like Adobe's PDF Reader in their browser. Of course this is assuming that Eolas wouldn't ask for past royalties.
This whole Eolas patent dispute has caused nothing but problems. Especially for web developers if this patent is ruled to be valid. If that happens Microsoft is prepared to release a work around for its Internet Explorer browser, which unfortunately would disrupt millions of webpage's. It's good to see that justice is being severed here, especially since this patent would cause nothing but trouble. Thanks to Microsoft we may never have to deal with the Eolas patent ever again.
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