News Patent could force web change

Also from the Beeb this evening:

Web developers are anxiously waiting for a Microsoft announcement about changes to its Internet Explorer browser after a US court found that it infringes another company's software patent.

Last month the Chicago District Court awarded $521 million in damages to Eolas, the small company which holds the patent, ordering Microsoft to remove all infringing technology from its browser and other programs.

It also rejected Microsoft's claim that the patent was invalid because the invention was already included in an earlier browser.

In a statement, Microsoft said: "We do plan to appeal this decision, and we are confident the facts and the law will support our position. We believe the evidence will ultimately show that there was no infringement of any kind."

Even though the legal process has not yet been exhausted, Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler has admitted that "we are evaluating our options and may take precautionary steps in terms of any changes we may need to make to Internet Explorer".

Full story here

 

MS don't need to fix my copy of IE. They already managed to screw up that feature for me.

 

lucky u $521million is alot of money for something like that isn't it! dam i need to start patenting everything....