CNET: Microsoft wins again in Eolas patent dispute

Microsoft won yet again against Eolas, the patent holder that initially won a half-billion dollar judgment against the software maker. This spring the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office started a review of that patent after it became something of a poster child for poorly examined patents. Before the issue is dead and buried there are at least two more appeals layers. Microsoft may want to take this legal issue to the mat - rather than dispensing with it for a nominal settlement - in order to discourage future patent suits. Late last year, some in the Internet industry worried that rich media ads would break if Microsoft had been forced to engineer around the wide-ranging patent.