Eolas argued that its patents entitled it to royalty payments for interactive web technology, which includes everything from streaming videos to rotating pictures, according to a report by Wired’s Threat Level.
The jury, however, was unconvinced by Eolas’s arguments concerning its ownership of the patents. Had the jury upheld the patents, companies such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo, and Amazon might have been on the hook to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Eolas.
The jury decision invalidates infringement lawsuits filed by Eolas to collect that money from the companies.
The chief issue in the case was whether the first computer program that allowed access to an interactive website was created by Doyle and Eolas. Or was it one of the web pioneers – such as Pei-Yuan Wei and his Viola browser or Dave Raggett and his <embed> tag – put on the stand by the defendant companies?
The Eolas patents had been questioned for years before this week’s trial, but managed to survive repeated re-examinations at the US Patent and Trademark Office, Threat Level noted.