The inventor of the web and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) director, Tim Berners-Lee has called on US officials to re-examine a patent relating to browser plug-in technology, claiming critical prior art was not examined during granting of the patent or the recent infringement litigation. He also urged the US Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, James Rogan to act.
Warning of substantial economic and technical damage to the operation of World Wide Web, Berners-Lee said the impact of the patent would be felt by those who will be forced to incur the cost of modifying Web pages or software applications and who do not even themselves infringe the patent.
The W3C has been galvanized by Eolas’ case against Microsoft, with Berners-Lee’s statement coming after a specially convened members’ meeting to discuss the matter in August.
The meeting’s objective was to evaluate potential near-term changes that might be implemented in browsers, authoring tools, and Web sites as a result of the court case.
The meeting produced widespread agreement with W3C saying that a solution that minimizes the effects of changes to Web software, sites and the user experience was needed.
Microsoft has begun instigating changes to IE to sidestep the patent while simultaneously appealing a recent $520.6 million ruling against it
This article was based on material originally published by ComputerWire.
