WTF - EOLAS files patent law suit against 22 companies

[BaRRaKID]

Technology research company Eolas Technologies, which won a $520.6 million patent infringement case against Microsoft in 2003, has filed a new patent lawsuit against 22 companies including Adobe Systems, Google, Yahoo, Apple, eBay and Amazon.com.

Eolas' lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, claims the tech vendors and other companies have violated two Eolas patents, one for allowing embedded applications in Web browsers, and the second a continuation of the first patent, allowing Web sites to add embedded applications through the use of plug-ins and AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML).

Link

Basically EOLAS claims that they invented a way to embed external objects in an HTML page (for example using the <embed> <object> or <applet> tags) 15 years ago, and are suing every major company that uses it nowadays. The patent, is patent nr 7599985 and it was granted last Tuesday(!!!!) according to the original news post.
DUDE WTF

[Sathor]

Looks like they want to earn quick money ... I mean, I don't guess it is something very special if everyone uses it. Isn't it likely it was kinda reinvented over the years?
Well if you can't have success in normal way, you just sue someone.

[Dr. Delta]

was granted last Tuesday

the usage is older then the patent, so
their argument is invalid.

american patent law is crap anyway

[BaRRaKID]

They where granted the patent yesterday, same day they filed their lawsuit, but they claim they invented it 15 years ago. At least that's what i get from the news post.
What it's even more mindfucking is that their description of what they "invented" is so subjective that it can be applied to anything on the web, they patented a method of embedding and external object in and HTML page, with this description they could even sue companies that use img tags if they wanted.

[Dionysos]

Yet another example of how the patent system need a reform in general. It's outright... blackmail? Evil at any rate.

[Psy]

This has to be the best patent trolling ever.

[Major Banter]

Company trolling.

The world is 4Chan.

[Blink]

If that's true they can sue nearly every website on the internet then. You can't sue someone for using part of the HTML spec for fuck's sake

They can also suck my dick.

[Dr. Delta]

If that's true they can sue nearly every website on the internet then. You can't sue someone for using part of the HTML spec for fuck's sake

They can also suck my dick.

You can't sue people for using a language with no pending patents. Everyone is FREE to use HTML. It's an open standard for webdevelopment.

EOLAS IS FULL OF CRAP, DIRTY TEXAS PATENT TROLLERS

[BaRRaKID]

For as hard as i try i can't understand what the fuck their patent is about:

United States Patent 7,599,985
Doyle , et al. October 6, 2009

Distributed hypermedia method and system for automatically invoking external application providing interaction and display of embedded objects within a hypermedia document

Abstract

A system allowing a user of a browser program on a computer connected to an open distributed hypermedia system to access and execute an embedded program object. The program object is embedded into a hypermedia document much like data objects. The user may select the program object from the screen. Once selected the program object executes on the user's (client) computer or may execute on a remote server or additional remote computers in a distributed processing arrangement. After launching the program object, the user is able to interact with the object as the invention provides for ongoing interprocess communication between the application object (program) and the browser program. One application of the embedded program object allows a user to view large and complex multi-dimensional objects from within the browser's window. The user can manipulate a control panel to change the viewpoint used to view the image. The invention allows a program to execute on a remote server or other computers to calculate the viewing transformations and send frame data to the client computer thus providing the user of the client computer with interactive features and allowing the user to have access to greater computing power than may be available at the user's client computer.

[bluefire40]

One application of the embedded program object allows a user to view large and complex multi-dimensional objects from within the browser's window.

So Runescape and that Peggle thing in WoW is now illegal? Brilliant.

[Dionysos]

It's bullshit, just like patenting the hyperlink.

[Major Banter]

STOP USING MY HYPERLINKS

I PATENTED THAT SHIT

[static07]

That pattent makes chuckle, c'mon who can take a pattent defined like that seriously?

[amckern]

You know that these guys have broken the W3C copyright?