Browser News: Resources - Patent Issues

Resources > Patent Issues

A number of patent issues may impact web design. These include:

Balthaser: has a patent, which will likely be disputed, for methods, systems and processes for the design and creation of rich-media applications via the Internet. [more...]
Eolas Technologies: has a disputed patent to certain kinds of embedded objects, e.g. applets and plug-ins, including Adobe’s (Acrobat) Reader, Apple’s QuickTime, Macromedia’s Flash, Macromedia’s Shockwave, Microsoft ActiveX Controls, Microsoft’s Windows Media Player, RealNetworks’ RealOne, and Sun’s Java Virtual Machine. If this patent were upheld, many companies would be forced to pay license fees, many sites would become harder to use, many websites would be changed, and all browsers would change to minimize the negative impact of the patent.

Some of this has already happened: changes have appeared in Internet Explorer 6 (and up) and in Opera 9 (and up); and many sites have been updated to reduce the damages to their usability. [more...] Eolas sued Microsoft, and Microsoft agreed to a settlement, so now can reverse the change it had made to IE to minimize the negative impact of the patent, but other browser makers remain at risk.
EpicRealm: has two disputed patents of technologies commonly used in creating server-side dynamic pages. [more...]
Scientigo: has disputed patents to XML. If these patents are upheld, anyone using XML may be forced to pay license fees, which would discourage people from using XML. [more...] [more...]

A number of patent issues no longer impact web design. These include:

British Telecom: claimed a patent to hyperlinks. Its patent was later invalidated. [more...]
Forgent: has disputed patents to a compression algorithm used in JPEG files. The patents may not be valid, but in any case Forgent settled a major lawsuit in November 2006 related to this patent, and will be paid for the use of the patent: companies making products which create JPEG files were forced to pay license fees until the patent expired in Q4 of 2006. [more...] [more...] [more...]
SBC Communications: claimed patents to navigational frames. Its patents were later invalidated. [more...]
Unisys: has a patent to a compression algorithm used in GIF files. This patent has now expired: before its expiry, companies making commercial software tools which created GIF files were forced to pay license fees. [more...]

Useful resources regarding such patents are: