14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is right on track to overturning a ruling that weighs heavily on its pockets. The Redmond Company was given the go ahead to argue the validity of a patent owned by research firm Eolas Technologies, and that came with a price tag of no less than $521 million. Microsoft lost the half a billion lawsuit debuted against it by the University of California and Eolas Technologies. The legal action was brought against Microsoft back in 1999, and the Redmond Company lost by the jury's decision.
However, while the legal terms are indeed against Microsoft, the company has opened a new attack front. Instead of focusing on the patent violation claim, Microsoft will gun after the rights of the University of California and Eolas Technologies to own the intellectual property associated with the process of embedding ActiveX technologies in Internet Explorer.
According to a recent ruling by the US Patent and Trademark Office, Microsoft will be free to stake the claim that it is the actual owner of the patent and not the University of California and researcher Michael Doyle's company, Eolas Technologies. If Microsoft manages to pull it through and prove that it has invented the technology designed to embed interactive content and components into a webpage, then the company will walk away with the $521 million intact.
The Eolas patent's validity was confirmed back in September 2005, but now the tables appear to have been turned, and Microsoft will go to the retrial of the Eolas patent lawsuit scheduled for July 9, with favorable wind in its sales. University of California and Michael Doyle won the initial patent infringement lawsuit, but Microsoft succeeded in overturning the verdict, and the retrial will only add time to the long-lasting legal battle. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will decide if Microsoft indeed holds the patent in the detriment of Eolas.