Eolas v. Microsoft: Eolas Patent Set to Reissue

Eolas v. Microsoft (Reexamination at the PTO).

Microsoft’s appeal of this case is currently pending before the Supreme Court. In a parallel action, however the Eolas patent has been undergoing reexamination at the USPTO. 

As occurs in almost all inter partes and director-ordered reexaminations, the patent office issued a non-final rejection to Eolas.  Although this first rejection was a good sign for Microsoft, on September 27, 2005, the patent office indicated that it was filing a “Notice of Intent to Issue a Reexam Certificate” for patent number 5,838,906. 

This means that the PTO has decided, for a second time, that the ‘906 patent is valid. 

Links:

• USPTO’s Docket Report (Live)
• Preview of reexamination
• File Attachment: Eolas Reasons for Patentability.pdf (2845 KB)
• IP Law Bulletin Article (subscription req’d)