Eolas Says Microsoft Should Shut Up And Pay Up
from the legalized-extortion dept
One of the discussions surrounding the Eolas patent was about a statement from Eolas saying they wouldn't license the patent to Microsoft at any price. Microsoft has been using this statement to show the damage that would be done if they had to make changes to the browser that would break many websites. Now, however, Eolas is changing their tune and saying of course they'll license the patent. The article reads just like a typical organized crime extortion talk, where they basically say "this will all be easier if you shut up and pay up". What they actually say is: "Microsoft and the Web community and consumers would be better off by Microsoft accepting the fact that this patent exists and paying for their fair use of it." Then, they try to blame Microsoft by saying it's "up to Microsoft" to come forward and settle. Microsoft, of course, says that's ridiculous. They would settle if they felt the patent was valid - but they don't, and they're going to fight it. In the meantime, there's increasing evidence of prior art on this patent.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Eolas patent
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ip patents
the one plus for this might be that mozilla gains more users by ignoring eolas patent stuff...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]