W3C sides with Microsoft against Eolas patent
itworld.com | at | by Mike
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has taken up Microsoft's cause in a patent infringement lawsuit by urging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to invalidate the related patent "in order to prevent substantial economic and technical damage to the operation of (the) World Wide Web."
In a long letter sent Tuesday by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee to James Rogan, U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, Berners-Lee claims that "prior art" -- a legal term referring to technology in existence at the time a patent is applied for -- proves U.S. Patent number 5,838,906 (the '906 patent) is invalid and that the USPTO should therefore re-examine the case for issuing the patent in the first place.