Randy Charles Morin blogs for the sake of blogging.
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eWeek: On Tuesday, the PTO issued a "Notice of Intent to Issue a Reexam Certificate" to Eolas, a one-person company spun off from the University of California, on U.S. Patent No. 5,838,906—known as the '906 patent. The notice means the PTO has decided to uphold the patent's validity, with an official certificate to follow later this year.
Dennis Crouch: From the standpoint of the PTO, the reexamination certificate is essentially a stamp of approval from the PTO that the prior art submitted does not invalidate the patent.
Microsoft said it would redesign the browser to get around Eolas' patents, potentially breaking large numbers of Web pages in the process.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1865104,00.asp
Randy: That's an interesting turn. The W3C and Microsoft both seemed convinced that a re-examination would invalidate the patent. Microsoft could probably fight this patent forever, but it's starting to look like they'll eventually lose. Redesigning the browser means that technologies like Java and Flash applets would have to adapt and could mean millions of broken Webpages.