The Supreme Court has declined to get involved in the Eolas case:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to hear an appeal from Microsoft Corp. challenging the methodology under which damages were calculated in a patent lawsuit filed by Eolas Technologies Inc. and the University of California over features in the software giant’s Web browser.
Rejection of the appeal leaves the fate of the lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Virginia, which was earlier this year ordered by a federal appeals court to hold new proceedings on the disputed patent technologies in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. That March ruling threw out portions of the ruling against Microsoft, which included a $521 million damages award that with interest grew to $560 million.
That’s it for Microsoft, now it’s “pay, pay and more pay.” This is what happens when you create a massive software giveaway program just to kill a rival.
I don’t get the connection. If MS had charged for Explorer, it’s not like the patent wouldn’t have caused them problems anyhow.
MS also has the opportunity to argue the merits of the patent again in the original district court. And for a change, I’m hoping they win. There is some strong evidence of prior art which was not presented in the original trial.
I’m saying they built Explorer to kill Netscape, but it could turn out to be an expensive murder, although I agree with you that the Eolas patent is bogus.