Interactive Web Content Patent Case: Tim Berners-Lee Testifies

Searching_ _ _ · Feb 8, 2012

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, testified in a courtroom Tuesday for the first time in his life. The web pioneer flew down from Boston, near where he teaches at MIT, to an eastern Texas federal court to speak to a jury of two men and six women about the early days of the web.

His trip is part of an effort by a group of internet companies and retailers trying to defeat two patents — patents that a patent-licensing company called Eolas and the University of California are saying entitle them to royalty payments from just about anyone running a website with “interactive” features, like rotating pictures or streaming video.

(For background on the case and patents, see our story “Patent Troll Claims Ownership of Interactive Web — And Might Win“)

The defendants, including Google, Amazon, and Yahoo, are hoping that Berners-Lee’s testimony—combined with that of other web pioneers like Netscape co-founder Eric Bina, Viola browser inventor Pei-Yuan Wei, and Dave Raggett (who invented the HTML “embed” tag) — will convince the jury that the inventions of Eolas and its founder, Michael Doyle, aren’t worth much. The stakes couldn’t be higher — if Berners-Lee and the defendants don’t succeed, Eolas and Doyle could insist on a payout from almost every modern website.
Click to expand...

Tim Berners-Lee Takes the Stand to Keep the Web Free - Wired

Log in or Sign up

Interactive Web Content Patent Case: Tim Berners-Lee Testifies

Searching_ _ _ Registered Member

Log in or Sign up

Interactive Web Content Patent Case: Tim Berners-Lee Testifies

Searching_ _ _ Registered Member

Useful Searches