Eolas vs. Microsoft Lawsuit Settled and Sealed

theodp writes "The Seattle P-I's Todd Bishop reports that Microsoft has settled its 8-year-old web browser plug-in patent dispute with Eolas. The spat begat the click-to-activate Web after Microsoft was slapped with a $500+ million patent infringement judgement. Neither Eolas nor Microsoft will be disclosing terms of the deal, although Eolas told investors to expect a dividend (PDF). Microsoft didn't say whether or how the settlement would affect its approach to the underlying technology in IE or other programs. Just last month, the USPTO issued a non-final rejection of the patent's claims, citing the work of Pei-Yuan Wei as prior art."

Excellent

[_Shorty-dammit]

Sounds as though the end is nigh for the useless extra clicks. Eolas deserves a smack. Too bad they're getting rewarded.

what?????

[superwiz]

Two public companies reach an agreement and the terms are not released to shareholders? What is this? Science fiction?

Re:Excellent

[Anonymous Coward]

How does Eolas deserve a smack for this? The entire idea of software patents encourages this sort of behavior. If anyone deserves a smack it is whoever has the power to eliminate software and business practice patents and fails to do so.

Re:Change in law

[giafly]

Simple. Freeze the shares of a company who files an IP suit over a patent they're not using.

Dumb.

1. Company announces it will sue and shares rise
2. Company sues and shares are frozen at this higher price
3. Directors get $$$$s by e.g. borrowing against the shares
4. Profit!

Re:Click twice pain...

[Anonymous Coward]

Now that Microsoft has settled, who is next on the list? It may well be Opera or the Mozilla foundation. Beware, more lawsuits are probably coming.

Re:Click twice pain...

[Ajehals]

Can I ask why you would come to that conclusion? It was the only one I ignored using the following reasoning:

The process to invalidate the patent was clearly initiated, surely it is in the public interest to remove invalid patents, regardless of the outcome of any particular case. Its not like the settlement would establish any sort of precedent, never mind the fact that Microsoft or Eolas's statements on the matter shouldn't have any bearing on whether the patent is valid or not, especially since there is an established method for testing the validity of patents.

I may be being naive of course.