14 DAY TRIAL // One of the worst and most damaging web patents in existence has finally been invalidated. It applies, basically, to anything on the web, any site, and any "interaction."
The patent was the work of Michael Doyle, who created a system that enabled doctors to view embryos online, while he was head of the computer lab at the University of California-San Francisco. This was before there even was an "online," in 1993.
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, had unveiled his greatest creation in 1991, but Doyle's patent dealt with "interactivity," something that the first version of the web wasn't really designed for.
Doyle later started the company Eolas, which never created anything in its existence except lawsuits.
At that, though, it was very successful, getting hundreds of millions of dollars from various companies it sued. But it met its match in 2012 when the company, in a bold move, sued 20 big names like Apple, Blockbuster, eBay, Adobe, Google, Yahoo, or Amazon.
Most of them, apart from Google, Yahoo, and JC Penney, settled out of court, earning Eolas significant amounts of money. But the companies that fought back fought hard, even bringing Berners-Lee in as a witness.
And they won; a Texas jury invalidated the two key patents owned by Eolas, killing the lawsuit and any future ones. Now, a three-judge panel stood by the initial jury decision on appeal, leaving Eolas with no further options.
The move means that other lawsuits, which the company filed even after it lost the ones against Google & Co., are dead as well. These involved Disney, ESPN, ABC, Facebook, and Wal-Mart.
The web can breathe easy now that these patents have been invalidated, but there are plenty of bad patents out there and plenty of companies that do nothing but sue the people actually building stuff.