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135 lines
6.6 KiB
135 lines
6.6 KiB
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en-US" lang="en-US">
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<head>
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<title>World Wide Web Consortium Presents the US Patent Office with
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Evidence Invalidating Eolas Patent</title>
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<link href="http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/base.css" rel="stylesheet"
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type="text/css" />
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</head>
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<body xml:lang="en" lang="en">
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<p><a href="/"><img src="/Icons/WWW/w3c_home" alt="W3C" width="72"
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height="48" /></a></p>
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<h1>World Wide Web Consortium Presents US Patent Office with Evidence
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Invalidating Eolas Patent</h1>
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<h2>W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee urges USPTO Director to review prior art,
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take action</h2>
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<p></p>
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<dl>
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<dt><strong>Contact Americas, Australia --</strong></dt>
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<dd>Janet Daly, <<a href="mailto:janet@w3.org">janet@w3.org</a>>,
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+1.617.253.5884 <em>or</em> +1.617.253.2613</dd>
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<dt><strong>Contact Europe --</strong></dt>
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<dd>Marie-Claire Forgue, <<a
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href="mailto:mcf@w3.org">mcf@w3.org</a>>, +33.492.38.75.94</dd>
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<dt><b>Contact Asia --</b></dt>
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<dd><dl>
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<dt>Yasuyuki Hirakawa <<a
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href="mailto:yasuyuki@w3.org">yasuyuki@w3.org</a>>,
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+81.466.49.1170</dt>
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</dl>
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</dd>
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</dl>
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<div class="translations">
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<p>(also available in <a href="28-906-briefing.html.fr"
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hreflang="fr" title="French version">French</a>)</p>
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</div>
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<hr class="xhtml" />
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<p><a href="/">http://www.w3.org</a> -- 29 October 2003 -- The World Wide Web
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Consortium (W3C), the global standard-setting body for the Web, has presented
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the United States Patent and Trademark Office with prior art establishing
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that US Patent No. 5,838,906 (the '906 patent) is invalid and should
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therefore be re-examined in order to eliminate this unjustified impediment to
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the operation of the Web. The W3C is urging US Under Secretary of Commerce
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for Intellectual Property James E. Rogan to initiate a re-examination of the
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patent because the critical prior art was neither considered at the time the
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patent was initially examined and granted, nor during recent patent
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infringement litigation.</p>
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<p>In an unprecedented step, Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of
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the Web, sent a <a href="27-rogan.html">letter</a> today to Under Secretary
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Rogan requesting that his office reinvestigate the matter. "W3C urges the
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USPTO to initiate a reexamination of the '906 patent in order to prevent
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substantial economic and technical damage to the operation of World Wide
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Web," stated Berners-Lee. "The impact of this patent will be felt not only by
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those who are alleged to directly infringe, but all whose web pages and
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application rely on the stable, standards-based operation of browsers
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threatened by this patent. In many cases, those who will be forced to incur
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the cost of modifying Web pages or software applications do not even
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themselves infringe the patent - assuming it is even valid."</p>
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<p>The decision to contact the USPTO directly was made by W3C's <a
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href="/2003/09/pag">HTML Patent Advisory Group</a>.</p>
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<h3>The '906 Patent Affects Broad Range of Web Functionality</h3>
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<p>The object embedding technology has been part of the HTML standard since
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the early days of the Web. This feature, supposedly covered by the '906
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patent, provides critical flexibility to Web browsers, and giving users
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seamless access to important features that extend the browsers' capabilities.
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Nearly every Web user today relies on plug-in applications that add services
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such as streaming audio and video, advanced graphics and a variety of special
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purpose tools.</p>
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<p>Changes forced by the '906 patent will also have a permanent impact on
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millions of historically important Web pages. In many cases, these pages
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contain non-commercial content or older material that is not generating
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revenue. As a result, there is no way to cover the cost of modifying those
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pages to bring them into compliance with whatever changes are made in
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response to the '906 patent.</p>
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<h3>The '906 Patent has disruptive impact on established Web standards</h3>
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<p>If the '906 patent remains in force, Web page authors who have followed
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Web standards for embedding objects will face a need for additional work, as
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browsers are re-engineered to avoid the patented features. Even though page
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authors haven't violated the patent, they will still bear the cost of
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rewriting Web pages or software applications, as browsers will no longer be
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able to perform in the manner they once did.</p>
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<h3>Critical, Previously Unreviewed Prior Art points to Invalidity of
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'906</h3>
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<p>The sole difference between the Web browser described in the '906 patent
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and typical browsers that the patent itself acknowledges as prior art, is
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that, with prior art browsers, the content is displayed in a new window,
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whereas, with the '906 browser, the content is displayed in the same window
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as the rest of the Web page. But that feature (i.e., displaying, or
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embedding, content generated by an external program in the same window as the
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rest of a Web page) was already described in the <a
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href="301-filing.html">prior art filing</a> submitted by W3C.</p>
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<h3>Commissioner should act given huge costs to the Web and prior art not
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considered during the initial patent examination</h3>
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<p>The '906 patent will cause cascades of incompatibility to ripple through
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the Web. Yet, it's not too late to remedy this problem. The material W3C
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presented in its Section 301 filing clearly establishes that the '906 patent
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is invalid. W3C believes that the Commissioner of the Patent and Trademark
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Office can and should order a re-examination of the '906 patent.</p>
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<h2>About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]</h2>
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<p>W3C -- an international organization made up of nearly 400 Members from
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industry, academe, users' organizations and public policy experts -- is
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responsible for setting the core technical standards for the World Wide Web.
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Since its launch by Tim Berners-Lee, Web inventor, in 1994, W3C has led the
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development of Web standards and, with these standards, established the basic
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architecture for the World Wide Web. W3C has produced nearly 60 technical
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Recommendations ranging from the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and the
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Extensible Markup Language (XML) to digital signatures, Cascading Style
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Sheets (CSS), guidelines for Web accessibility, and the Platform for Privacy
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Preferences (P3P). It is jointly run by MIT Computer Science and Artificial
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Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research
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Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France
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and Keio University in Japan. For more information see <a
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href="/">http://www.w3.org/</a></p>
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</body>
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</html>
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