Eolas is suing Microsoft, Google, and 23 other companies for patent infringement. They claim that they now have patent protection over anyone providing the ability (usually via plug-ins) to embed user-interactive applications. So yea, if you’ve used Wordpress (which uses AJAX) or any other site in which you implemented a plug-in to increase user interaction, you just became a part of history. This is getting ridiculous…
Article

This just 3 days after the Software Freedom Law Center filed a brief with the Supreme Court insisting that software patents be shot down.
Excerpt: “In this closely-watched case, the Supreme Court will decide whether the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was correct in restricting patentable processes to those ‘tied to a particular machine or apparatus,’ or which ‘transform[s] a particular article into a different state or thing,’ a conclusion which if fully implemented could bring to an end the widespread patenting of computer programs. … This case gives the Supreme Court a chance to reaffirm what its past cases have held for more than a century: that no patent law consistent with the US Constitution can permit the monopolization of abstract ideas.”
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Guess we’ll see soon about good old Bilski…

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