Jury orders Microsoft to pay $520.5 million

A federal court jury awarded a Chicago-based software company and the University of California $520.5 million in damages Monday after finding that Microsoft Corp. infringed on a patent.

Microsoft attorneys said the verdict by the jury of eight men and four women following a five-week trial before U.S. District James B. Zagel was guaranteed to be appealed.

The jury could have awarded as much as $1.2 billion to the university and Eolas Technologies Inc. of Chicago for the alleged patent infringement.

"We are very satisfied," said Eolas attorney Martin R. Lueck. "It shows the jury system works. Patents need to be respected regardless of the size and the market power of the company involved."

Eolas was launched in 1994 to market technology that allows users to access interactive programs embedded in web pages.

Eolas Chairman Michael Doyle along with two others invented the technology while they were working at the University of California at San Francisco.

Eolas and the university say Microsoft made their technology part of Internet Explorer and bundled it with Windows.

Microsoft attorneys argued that the patent was invalid and said that in any case their client had never infringed on it.

The figure of $520,562,280 was based on a jury calculation that $1.47 per unit represented reasonable royalties for the 354 million copies of Windows sold from the time the patent was granted in November 1998 until September 2001.

Eolas and the university had been asking for $3.50 for each unit, an amount Microsoft attorneys had said was absurd. The average price of windows during the period was $61, attorneys said.

After deliberating for less than a full day, the jury found that three separate claims of patent infringement on Microsoft's part were valid.

Microsoft attorney Andy Culbert said that the jury's finding would be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Attorneys said Eolas would receive the lion's share of any damages that are eventually paid but declined to provide the specifics.

The [link|http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-030811microsoft,1,5321085.story?coll=chi-news-hed|link] expires at midnight, so the whole story is here. So don't give me any shit about violating anyone's copyright either.

The suit asks the court for both unspecified damages for the infringing activity and for an injunction to force Microsoft to cease all future manufacturing, use and sale of infringing products. The Eolas '906 patent was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on November 17, 1998, for creation of the first browser system that, for example, allowed for the embedding of small interactive programs, such as "plug-ins," "applets," "scriptlets" or ActiveX\ufffd Controls, into World Wide Web documents.

From the press release of the original suit. [link|http://www.eolas.com/zmapress.htm|Here]

Woudn't this also cover java? And other methods? All browsers that support these methods could be included eventually.

Post #113,513 by lincoln 8/11/03 7:18:55 PM Reply	Jury orders Microsoft to pay $520.5 million A federal court jury awarded a Chicago-based software company and the University of California $520.5 million in damages Monday after finding that Microsoft Corp. infringed on a patent. Microsoft attorneys said the verdict by the jury of eight men and four women following a five-week trial before U.S. District James B. Zagel was guaranteed to be appealed. The jury could have awarded as much as $1.2 billion to the university and Eolas Technologies Inc. of Chicago for the alleged patent infringement. "We are very satisfied," said Eolas attorney Martin R. Lueck. "It shows the jury system works. Patents need to be respected regardless of the size and the market power of the company involved." Eolas was launched in 1994 to market technology that allows users to access interactive programs embedded in web pages. Eolas Chairman Michael Doyle along with two others invented the technology while they were working at the University of California at San Francisco. Eolas and the university say Microsoft made their technology part of Internet Explorer and bundled it with Windows. Microsoft attorneys argued that the patent was invalid and said that in any case their client had never infringed on it. The figure of $520,562,280 was based on a jury calculation that $1.47 per unit represented reasonable royalties for the 354 million copies of Windows sold from the time the patent was granted in November 1998 until September 2001. Eolas and the university had been asking for $3.50 for each unit, an amount Microsoft attorneys had said was absurd. The average price of windows during the period was $61, attorneys said. After deliberating for less than a full day, the jury found that three separate claims of patent infringement on Microsoft's part were valid. Microsoft attorney Andy Culbert said that the jury's finding would be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Attorneys said Eolas would receive the lion's share of any damages that are eventually paid but declined to provide the specifics. The [link\|http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-030811microsoft,1,5321085.story?coll=chi-news-hed\|link] expires at midnight, so the whole story is here. So don't give me any shit about violating anyone's copyright either. lincoln "If you're on your deathbed and you haven't got a story to tell, then you haven't lived. - Asa Baber" [link\|http://users3.ev1.net/~bconnors/resume.htm\|VB/SQL resume] [link\|http://users3.ev1.net/~bconnors/tandem_resume.htm\|Tandem resume] [link\|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net\|contact me]
Post #113,519 by a6l6e6x 8/11/03 7:48:02 PM Reply	Ah, Microsoft caught "innovating" again! :) Alex "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something." -- last words of Pancho Villa (1877-1923)
Post #113,520 by Silverlock 8/11/03 8:30:03 PM Reply	That bodes ill for others. The suit asks the court for both unspecified damages for the infringing activity and for an injunction to force Microsoft to cease all future manufacturing, use and sale of infringing products. The Eolas '906 patent was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on November 17, 1998, for creation of the first browser system that, for example, allowed for the embedding of small interactive programs, such as "plug-ins," "applets," "scriptlets" or ActiveX\ufffd Controls, into World Wide Web documents. From the press release of the original suit. [link\|http://www.eolas.com/zmapress.htm\|Here] Woudn't this also cover java? And other methods? All browsers that support these methods could be included eventually. ----------------------------------------- [link\|http://www.talion.com/questionw.html\|?W] Where were you in 72?
Post #113,568 by drewk 8/12/03 9:25:13 AM Reply	My head's about to explode Little guy screws Microsoft: Yay! They do it with software patent: Uhh, hold on a second ... For something really, really trivial, and ubiquitous: SHIT! === Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.

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