SITE: Web Group Backs Microsoft in Patent Suit

In a very unusual move, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a standards body, publicly backed Microsoft defending itself (and, by proxy, any rich media company on the web) against a patent case that is on appeal. In a spirited letter to the head of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the group's leader stated, "the cycle of innovation on the Web would be substantially retarded" if the patent was allowed to stand.

While a touching show of support, the Patent Office very rarely intercedes in submarine patent cases, like this one. Eolas took Microsoft to the cleaners to the tune of about half a billion dollars, and Microsoft plans to appeal this low-level judicial decision. Playing the odds, Microsoft will very likely prevail, as about 70 percent of district level patent cases that are appealed are in fact overturned - mostly because of district judges' ignorance of the quite complex facets of patent litigation.

If the W3C really wants to help overturn the decision, they should be writing a friend-of-the-court brief for the ongoing litigation, or better still, running off to find prior art that would invalidate the patent.