The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to reconsider an appeal by Microsoft in a case which involves claims made by a private California software company and the University of California. The two accusers say that Microsoft infringed their patents with its Internet Explorer browser.

There was no real explanation why the Supreme Court wouldn't even consider the appeal forwarded by Microsoft, that it said involved more than 64 percent of the $521 million patent infringement ruling against the software giant.

The original ruling which was issued by an Illinois jury in 2003 said that some Internet Explorer components breached the technology patented by Eolas and the University of California. As a result, some experts believed that Microsoft could be forced into modifying the Internet Explorer browser, which could lead into incapacitating to run certain applets, or mini-applications, that run on Web pages.

Several Internet Standard groups, one of them being the World Wide Web Consortium, had argued that previous inventions may nullify Eolas' patent claims about Micrososft breaching patent rights. Considering the Supreme Court's denial of the appeal, it is very likely this case will go back to federal court in Illinois for more proceedings.

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