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Do you think this lawsuit will impact anything?
FOCUS-Microsoft hit by Web patent infringement suit
(recasts throughout, adds Microsoft comment, interviews with
plaintiffs, attorneys, updates stock price, pvs CHICAGO)
By Eric Auchard
NEW YORK, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT -
news) was sued on Tuesday by a small research and development
firm in a patent infringement case tied to key technologies used by
Microsoft and other leading Internet software makers, attorneys for
the plaintiffs said.
The federal lawsuit, filed on behalf of plaintiffs Eolas
Technologies Inc. of Chicago, claims Microsoft's products infringe
Eolas' U.S. patent for the technology that makes Web ''plug-ins''
and ''applets'' possible, the attorneys said. Such technologies help
give Internet users the ability to download music, video or
animated graphics via the Web.
The complaint was filed against Microsoft Tuesday in U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern
Division by Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP.
A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment immediately on the
complaint saying he had not seen the lawsuit and would need to
review it before possibly commenting on the matter.
The suit opens a new legal front for Microsoft as it faces an
ongoing antitrust trial in Washington and appeals a federal judge's
order backing rival Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW -
news) in a dispute between the two over the Java programming
language.
The suit asks the court for both unspecified damages from
Microsoft for the infringing on the Eolas patent and for an
injunction to force Microsoft to cease all future manufacturing, use
and sale of infringing products.
Robins, Kaplan, a veteran litigation firm, has tried several high
profile patent cases in the past decade, including Fonar Corp.'s
(Nasdaq:FONR - news) successful magnetic resonance imaging
intellectual property suit versus General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE -
news)
The Minneapolis-based firm also was the lead plaintiffs' firm
representing the State of Minnesota and Blue Cross/Blue Shield in
their suit against major tobacco companies. Martin Lueck, lead
lawyer in the tobacco case, heads the Eolas team.
Eolas said in a statement its U.S. Patent 5,838,906 is infringed by
Microsoft's Web-enabled software, including Windows 98 and
Windows 95, two versions of its core operating system, and
Internet Explorer, its browser software.
Eolas said it holds exclusive commercial rights to a patent --
granted Nov. 17, 1998 -- that covers the first browser system to
allow small interactive programs, such as ''plug-ins,'' ''applets'' or
''scriptlets'' to be embedded into the graphical Internet software
known as the World Wide Web.
The company said in a statement its patent covers a version of such
programs from Microsoft known as ActiveX Controls.
The research team that built the system was led by Dr. Michael
Doyle, founder and chief executive of Eolas, a privately held
research firm with ten employees.
The company, based in a Chicago neighborhood known for its
high-technology development work and nicknamed ''Silicon
Prairie,'' describes itself as a maker of tools and applications to
help make the Web a more interactive medium.
In a phone interview, Doyle declined to comment on whether his
company had held talks to license the technology to Microsoft or
other Web software developers.
He would not say if Eolas was considering filing similar patent
suits against other software developers, which might include
Netscape Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:NSCP - news), or Sun
Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW - news), makers of other
widely used Internet software that also rely on plug-ins or applets.
Doyle said he put together a team in 1994 to create medical
imaging software for doctors and medical students that would
allow them to send and receive low-cost, three-dimensional
medical images and data over the Internet.
Current zMap software from Eolas allows computer users to
create what it calls ''imagemaps'' with moving hotspots that follow
objects in Web-based animations and video clips.
For example, the software system allows a user to rotate an image
of a human body and click a computer mouse to specify body parts
and uncover information about them.
Ken Adamo, a partner with law firm Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue
of Cleveland, Ohio, said U.S. courts and juries have become more
open in recent years to awarding plaintiffs large verdicts in patent
infringement cases.
Adamo, who represents a range of major clients like Texas
Instruments and IBM in patent cases, had no specific knowledge of
the details of the Eolas charges but vouched for the track record of
the plaintiffs' attorneys in such cases.
''Every American jury wants to believe that they have Thomas
Edison standing before them,'' Adamo said of the potential for
Eolas to prevail, despite the dispute with Microsoft appearing to
be what he called ''a true case of David and Goliath.''
Internet patent cases are only beginning to find their way into the
courts as the idea that software is patentable has gained legal
footing and intellectual property case law in the area has
strengthened in the last two to three years, he said.
In heavy trading, Microsoft stock tumbled $5.31 to close at
$167.62 Tuesday on the Nasdaq stock exchange amid concerns the
government's antitrust case against the company was making
headway and a wave of selling in technology stocks.
Srini.
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