Editing Eolas (section)

{{Short description|American technology firm}}
{{About|the US corporation|other uses of ''Eolas''|Eolas (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox company
| name             = Eolas
| logo             = [[File:Eolas-logo.png]]
| type             = [[Corporation]]
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| foundation       = 1994
| founder          = Michael Doyle
| defunct          =
| location_city    = [[Tyler, Texas]]
| location_country = United States
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}}

'''Eolas''' ({{IPA|ga|ˈoːl̪ˠəsˠ}}, meaning "Knowledge"; [[bacronym]]: "Embedded Objects Linked Across Systems") is a [[United States]] [[technology]] firm formed as a spin-off from the [[University of California, San Francisco]] (UCSF), in order to commercialize UCSF's patents for work done there by Eolas' co-founders, as part of the [[Visible Embryo Project]].  The company was founded in 1994 by Michael Doyle, Rachelle Tunik, David Martin, and Cheong Ang from the [[UCSF]] Center for Knowledge Management (CKM).<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1032-5063444.html|title=Will browser verdict snare others?|author=Paul Festa|work=CNET News|date=2003-08-14}}</ref>  The company was created at the request of UCSF, and was founded by the inventors of the university's patents.<ref>''[https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/08/09/revisiting_big_techs_patent_troll_boogeyman_143891.html#!]'', RealClear Politics: Revisiting Big Tech's Patent Troll Boogeyman, retrieved 2020-10-13</ref>

In addition to the work done while at UCSF, Doyle has led work at Eolas to create new technologies ranging from [[Genomics|Spatial Genomics]]/[[Spatial transcriptomics]],<ref>{{cite patent|country=US|number=7613571|pubdate=2009-11-03|title=Method and system for the multidimensional morphological reconstruction of genome expression activity|inventor1-last=Doyle|inventor1-first=Michael D.|inventor2-last=Pescitelli, Jr.|inventor2-first=Maurice J.|inventor3-last=Williams|inventor3-first=Betsey S.|inventor4-last=Michaels|inventor4-first=George S.}}</ref> [[Code signing]], [[transient-key cryptography]], and [[blockchain]]<ref>{{cite patent|country=US|number=6381696|pubdate=2002-04-30|title=Method and system for transient key digital time stamps|assign1=Proofspace Inc.|inventor1-last=Doyle|inventor1-first=Michael D.}}</ref> to mobile AI assistants<ref>{{cite patent|country=US|number=10015318|pubdate=2018-07-03|title=Automated communications response system|assign1=Eolas Technologies Inc.|inventor1-last=Landers|inventor1-first=Steven Carl|inventor2-last=Doyle|inventor2-first=Michael D.}}</ref> and automated audio conversation annotation.<ref>{{cite patent|country=US|number=10582350|pubdate=2020-03-03|title=Method and apparatus for automatically identifying and annotating auditory signals from one or more parties|assign1=Eolas Technologies Inc.|inventor1-last=Martin|inventor1-first=David C.|inventor2-last=Doyle|inventor2-first=Michael D.}}</ref>

The [[University of California, San Francisco]] CKM team created an advanced early [[web browser]] that supported [[Plug-in (computing)|plugin]]s, [[streaming media]], and [[cloud computing]], which could provide seamless access to potentially-unlimited remote high-performance computational capabilities. They demonstrated it at [[Xerox PARC]], in November 1993, at the second [[Bay Area]] SIGWEB meeting. The claim that the plug-in/applet functionality was an innovation, advanced to justify their patent application, has been contested by [[Pei-Yuan Wei]],<ref>{{cite web|url=//lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-talk/1995JulAug/0446.html |title=Re: EOLAS ACQUIRES MILESTONE INTERNET SOFTWARE PATENT from Pei Wei on 1995-08-21 (www-talk@w3.org from July to August 1995) |publisher=Lists.w3.org |access-date=February 11, 2012}}</ref> who developed the earlier [[ViolaWWW|Viola browser]], which added scripted-app capabilities in 1992,<ref>{{citation|url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1028_3-5088349.html|title=Eolas files motion to enjoin IE|author=Paul Festa|work=CNET News|date=2003-10-08}}</ref> a claim supported by Sir [[Tim Berners-Lee]], inventor of the WWW,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/69983/microsoft-wins-latest-round-in-eolas-patent-battle|title=Microsoft wins latest round in Eolas patent battle|author=Steve Malone|date=3 March 2005|work=PC Pro}}</ref> and other Web pioneers.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1028_3-5100693.html|title=Web patent critics spotlight old technology|author=Paul Festa|work=CNET News|date=31 October 2003}}</ref> Given only a short time to prepare, Wei was only able to demonstrate Viola's equivalent capabilities for local rather than remote files at the 2003 Eolas v. Microsoft trial, and thus fell short of proving [[prior art]] to the trial court's satisfaction.<ref name="elys">{{cite web
 | title = Eolas Technologies Inc. v. Microsoft Corp
 | url = http://sherinianlaw.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/eolas_microsoft_federal_circuit.pdf
 | access-date = 2014-11-21
 | archive-date = 2014-11-29
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141129040102/http://sherinianlaw.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/eolas_microsoft_federal_circuit.pdf
 | url-status = dead
 }} {}</ref> The case with Microsoft over patent 5,838,906 was settled in 2007 for a confidential amount of money after an initial $565 million judgment was stayed on appeal, but the University of California disclosed its piece of the final settlement as $30.4 million. In 2009 Eolas sued numerous other companies over patent number 7,599,985 in the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Eaton |first=Nick |url=http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/2009/10/06/after-beating-microsoft-eolas-sues-everyone-else/ |title=After beating Microsoft, Eolas sues everyone else |publisher=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |date=October 6, 2009 |access-date=February 11, 2012}}</ref> As of June 2011, a number of these companies, including [[Texas Instruments]], [[Oracle Corporation|Oracle]] and [[JPMorgan Chase]], had signed licensing deals with Eolas, while the company continued to seek licenses from others.<ref name="pcworld1">Nancy Gohring (June 17, 2011) [https://www.pcworld.com/article/230517/ti_signs_license_deal_after_eolas_patent_lawsuit.html TI Signs License Deal After Eolas Patent Lawsuit]{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, IDG News</ref>

In February 2012, an eight-person jury in the Eastern District of Texas invalidated some of the claims in the ’906 and ’985 patents, and in July 2012, Judge Leonard Davis ruled against Eolas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cdn.arstechnica.net//wp-content/uploads/2012/07/1414-Memo-Opin-and-Order.pdf |title=MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER |publisher=UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS, TYLER DIVISION |date=July 19, 2012 |access-date=July 1, 2013}}</ref> One year later, moreover, the [[US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit]] sustained that ruling.

However, after a new patent covering cloud computing on the Web was granted to Eolas in November 2015,<ref name="patent3"/> Eolas filed a new lawsuit against Google, Amazon and Walmart, which is currently{{when|date=January 2023}} underway in the Northern District of California.<ref name="District-Court-Eolas-Technologies-v.-Amazon.com-02-24-16.pdf ">{{cite web |title=District-Court-Eolas-Technologies-v.-Amazon.com-02-24-16.pdf |url=https://www.ipwatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/District-Court-Eolas-Technologies-v.-Amazon.com-02-24-16.pdf |website=ipwatchdog.com |publisher=IPWatchdog |access-date=13 October 2020}}</ref>