Eolas Technologies may be the biggest patent troll the Internet has ever seen. The company, alongside the University of California, claimed patents that pertained to the “interactive web.” This includes moving images, music clips, maps, search features, etc. Essentially, they claimed to have a patent for the modern Internet according to Wired.

Eolas took over a dozen companies to court in 2009 over these ridiculous patent claims. Some of those companies included Google, Amazon.com, Adobe and others.

Some companies just settled after the initial lawsuit to avoid further court costs. Those companies included Apple, Playboy and EBay. Google and others kept on fighting the claims that Eolas had a patent on the “interactive web.”

Well, good news comes to those who wait as a federal jury in Tyler, Texas yesterday said that the two patents owned by Eolas were invalid. Those who settled back in 2009 must be feeling pretty silly right now.

If the jury found their patents valid, the case would have gone forward with each company being tried for infringement. The jury invalidated the need for those trials and Eolas will never get their dirty money.

What may have tipped the odds in the general Internet’s favor was that Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Internet, and Pei-Yuan Wei, developer of a Web browser before Eolas, testified on behalf of the companies still fighting.

If Eolas wants to keep fighting, they could appeal the decision. They probably won’t, however, as it would be too costly. They also would not be able to target any more companies during the appeal proceedings.

It just once again goes to show you that companies shouldn’t settle with patent trolls. Fighting them will usually expose just how fraudulent their patent claims are.

Microsoft, Eolas Interact To Settle Suit

Eolas Technologies and the University of California regents have settled with Microsoft for undisclosed terms. Todd Bishop at the Seattle P-I obtained a two-page letter sent by Eolas COO Mark Swords to shareholders.

The battle between Eolas and Microsoft over the way Internet Explorer handles certain plug-ins like Flash has been simmering since 1999. A $565 million judgment in 2004 against Microsoft ended up being kicked back to the appellate courts for another trial.

Microsoft wanted the Supreme Court to hear its appeal, a request to reduce the awarded damages by $360 million. The Supremes declined to hear the appeal without comment.

Bishop said today that the number of shares outstanding at Eolas is not known. Those shareholders will see a dividend of between $60 and $72 per share according to Swords’s letter.

The suit, which was filed by Eolas against Microsoft, covered a patent Eolas filed for, “Distributed hypermedia method for automatically invoking external application providing interaction and display of embedded objects within a hypermedia document”

Eolas patented the method of adding elements such as Flash or Quick Time movies to a website. As of April 11, Microsoft has been issuing a patch for Internet Explorer that forces users to double click on Flash files to make them work properly.

The change effects the way Flash files will be viewed by IE users. The patch is an update to Active X controls preventing users from automatically interacting with embedded objects. Users will now have to activate that object first by clicking on an Active X box that will appear over the space the embedded object occupies.

For more information on the switch and how it could affect your site or use of the Internet, please visit the Adobe Active Content Developer Center .

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The way IE handles Flash or other dynamic content could change as soon as Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday arrives on April 11th. Updates to the Active X handlers of Flash have been available for IE users as an option, but Microsoft wants to avoid drawing the wrath of the judge presiding in its suit with Eolas, CIO.com reported.

If websites that use Flash to display dynamic content update those applications with workarounds created by Microsoft and Adobe, Macromedia’s new parent company, their users should not encounter any problems when visiting with IE.

Otherwise, those IE users may see the security bar popup every time they go to a Flash site that hasn’t implemented those workarounds yet. That popup does not affect the functionality of a Flash application, but could prove bothersome to users who are not used to the interruptions.

Although April 11th had been previously cited as the date where the update would happen, further testing could cause a delay, the article said:

The case between Microsoft and Eolas has spent the better part of three years in the court system. An appellate court tossed out a January 2004 judgment against Microsoft for $565 million, ordering another trial.

Microsoft then tried to get the Supreme Court to reduce the judgment by $360 million, saying copies of IE distributed outside the US should not be counted in the lawsuit. However, the Supreme Court turned down that appeal without comment.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Back in 1999, Eolas and the University of California went after Microsoft for patent infringement over certain plug-ins and applets and the way Internet Explorer used them. Initially, the USPTO ruled in favor of EOLAS and a jury awarded them over $500 million in damages in 2003.

The case went to an appeals court and they sided partially in favor of Microsoft. They sent the case back to the USPTO and said the Redmond software company should be able to present evidence that similar inventions happened before the Eolas patent. The USPTO review the information again and said no to Microsoft.

According to ZDNet, Microsoft’s spokesperson said, “This is disappointing news, but we remain committed to seeing this case through to a successful resolution.”

Microsoft had recently had a bit of luck in the patent department over some disputes with Apple over their iPod. Whether Microsoft will attempt to take this further is unknown although the only other place to go would be the Supreme Court of the United States. Microsoft also just go hammered with a decision from the EU over certain monopolistic behaviors. They avoided that decision in a U.S. appeals court several years ago.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Eolas sued Microsoft for patent infringement that deals with technology alledgely tied to Internet Explorer. According to TheStreet.com,

The case has been remanded to the District Court.

A federal jury had ordered Microsoft in 2003 to pay about $520 million to Eolas and the University of California, which jointly sued the software company for infringement.

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