The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has stepped squarely into a fight roiling the Web by agreeing to re-examine the Eolas patent for a browser plug-in, a development likely to bring cheer to Microsoft and software patent foes alike. The 906 patent, owned by the University of California and licensed exclusively to one-man software company Eolas, describes how a Web browser can use external applications. The patent also earned that school and company a $521 million judgment after a federal jury found that Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser infringed on it.
After Microsoft made public planned changes to IE that held the potential to break millions of Web sites, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) last month urged the USPTO to re-examine the so-called 906 patent in light of W3C technologies that it said predated Eolas' patent. Specifically, the consortium pointed out early HTML drafts by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee and W3C staff member Dave Raggett that it said qualified as prior art in the case.
The W3C's public call came as part of a larger campaign to identify prior art relevant to the Eolas case. Prior art is a similar invention that predates a patent, therefore invalidating it. The USPTO responded quickly to the W3C's request, and on Oct. 30 the office initiated an order for re-examination. On Monday that order was docketed to the patent examiner. "A substantial outcry from a widespread segment of the affected industry has essentially raised a question of patentability with respect to the 906 patent claims," Stephen Kunin, the USPTO's deputy commissioner for patent examination policy, wrote in his order for re-examination. "This creates an extraordinary situation for which a director-ordered examination is an appropriate remedy."
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News source: news.com
After Microsoft made public planned changes to IE that held the potential to break millions of Web sites, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) last month urged the USPTO to re-examine the so-called 906 patent in light of W3C technologies that it said predated Eolas' patent. Specifically, the consortium pointed out early HTML drafts by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee and W3C staff member Dave Raggett that it said qualified as prior art in the case.
The W3C's public call came as part of a larger campaign to identify prior art relevant to the Eolas case. Prior art is a similar invention that predates a patent, therefore invalidating it. The USPTO responded quickly to the W3C's request, and on Oct. 30 the office initiated an order for re-examination. On Monday that order was docketed to the patent examiner. "A substantial outcry from a widespread segment of the affected industry has essentially raised a question of patentability with respect to the 906 patent claims," Stephen Kunin, the USPTO's deputy commissioner for patent examination policy, wrote in his order for re-examination. "This creates an extraordinary situation for which a director-ordered examination is an appropriate remedy."
View: The full story News source: news.com
This is a cumulative update that includes the functionality of all the previously-released updates for Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 5.5, and Internet Explorer 6.0. Additionally, it eliminates the following five newly-discovered vulnerabilities:
- Three vulnerabilities that involve the cross-domain security model of Internet Explorer
- A vulnerability that involves the way that zone information is passed to an XML object within Internet Explorer
- A vulnerability that involves performing a drag-and-drop operation during dynamic HTML (DHTML) events in Internet Explorer.
Note: As with the previous Internet Explorer cumulative updates that were released with bulletins MS03-004, MS03-015, MS03-020, MS03-032, and MS03-040, this cumulative update causes the window.showHelp( ) control to no longer work if you have not applied the HTML Help update. If you have installed the updated HTML Help control from Knowledge Base article 811630, you will still be able to use HTML Help functionality after you apply this update.
Thanks for playing though. Do a little research before you start saying crap...
That is why the W3C doesn't want this changed. It hurts MS and a ton of other companies (including Netscape, Opera, etc...). A lot of people will have to change how their stuff is handled.
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