Cringely's latest column has been getting a lot of buzz. He profiles Eolas Technologies, which claims to own a patent that covers all browser plug-ins. Eolas, of course, is suing Microsoft for patent infringement, and has been having moderate success so far. The trial is in the discovery phase, and Eolas is winning more than its share of skirmishes over what evidence Microsoft must or must not disclose to Eolas's lawyers. (The best source for links to court documents seems to be the Eolas news page).
The twist is that Eolas has been pledging not to settle: they "just" want Microsoft to stop using their IP. This tactic has the potential to effectively kill IE, by making it unable to compete with other browsers on features. The last IE not to support plug-ins was what, version 2? Version 1?
Although LawMeme is not, as a rule, very sympathetic to Microsoft, and although LawMeme is always pleased to see a little guy standing up for principle, LawMeme is also more than a bit disturbed at this kind of use of patent law. The idea that a smart inventor with smart lawyers could keep a well-known and reasonably self-evident idea from the world and turn the computing clock back a decade is the kind of abuse giving patent law a bad name.