[ale] OT: no more active X in IE?

[J o n K e t t e n h o f e n]

OK, this will date me!

I once read an IBM patent filed in the '80s that claimed features 
used in a terminal
(like protected, read-only, fields) which I used (no, not programmed) on Univac
terminals during the late '70s.  So I have to ask: will M$ appeal? 
It not, what
else is going on under the table?

Typically when one big company sues another for patent infringement, 
the aggressor
intimidates the defendants with an additional  fistful of patents 
(alleged violations).
  Many of those patents, though granted, are based on pre-existing (to 
the patent)
technology which was never patented by the author - something not 
easily checked
by the patent office.  It's very expensive for the defending legal 
team to research
and invalidate the bogus remaining patents waived at them, so they often settle
the suite.  Even so, I would be surprised if M$ does not contest the ruling.


>On Sat, 2003-08-30 at 08:24, Geoffrey wrote:
>>  From:
>>
>>  http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3070591
>>
>>  'Eolas' patent (US Patent 5,838,906) was granted on November 17, 1998
>>  and covers technologies for the creation of a browser system that
>>  allowed for the embedding of small interactive programs, such as
>>  plug-ins, applets, scriptlets or ActiveX Controls, into online documents.'
>>
>>  Seems to me this would affect all browsers, but these guys won a .5
>>  billion $ suite against M$.
>
>I was cautiously happy when I heard about this.  Though it is always
>nice to see MS lose a battle, I wonder how this will effect Mozilla and
>other free browsers.  Will everyone have to pay an Eolas tax just to
>include embedded object support in a browser or does this just have to
>do with the way ActiveX works?  What about Java, applets, php?  From
>what I have read of the patent, it is very vague and doesn't represent a
>real product, just an idea.  I'm worried this will in the long run
>damage the Open Source community as much or more than MS.
>
>Jeff Rose
>
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