Too many topics, too little time

USPTO acts against Eolas patent. A report by Robert McMillan (IDG News Service) says that on 25 February, the US Patent Office took a first step toward revoking Patent Number 5,838,906 issued in 1998 to Eolas Technologies for embedding interactive program elements in webpages (plug-ins).Last… [InternetPolicy.net]

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invalidating patents is appropriate more times than not in cases like this. the patent should be reserved for a true invention where you profit off of its use in the immediate future, it should not be used as a tool to punish people after the fact who figured out the technology themselves and have for some time. so if eolas would have produced and continued to pursue their licensing throughout their patent ownership, i'd be happy with it, but if they didn't then i'd say they abandoned the patent and thus invalidate it.