The article contains at least one factual error. It states that Eolas never released a web browser of its own; in fact it did release one called WebRouser in 1995 (three years before the patent actually issued).
For that and other reasons, I don't think Doyle can properly be called a patent troll, if such is someone who sits on a patent until it becomes valuable and then springs out of nowhere to demand a cut of profitable businesses.
Doyle came out with his product before the patent actually issued, and offered the patent for license to the big players. They turned him down, then cried foul when he sued them for violating his patent. I don't think they can realistically claim to have been ambushed or trolled.
Reform of patent law may be a legitimate topic for debate, but Doyle played by the rules as he found them. He was up front and public about what he was doing the whole time. Every mortal effort and every conceivable argument have been made by the bigs to take him down, but the patent stands. Like everyone else, he deserves at least to have the truth spoken about him.
1995 was 17 years ago. Why did it take 17 years to start the suits? It's not like any of this was hidden in those 17 years. Google's been around since 1998. Amazon was from 1995. Yahoo was from 1995. What part of these companies took 14-17 years to finally bring a suit to? Until I see that, he's a damn dirty patent troll taking advantage of the status quo.
Eolas sued Microsoft in 1999 and the suit took almost a decade to go through all the appeals and such. After they finished taking down MS, Eolas started working on suing everyone else. This information is out there if you bother to look...
For that and other reasons, I don't think Doyle can properly be called a patent troll, if such is someone who sits on a patent until it becomes valuable and then springs out of nowhere to demand a cut of profitable businesses.
Doyle came out with his product before the patent actually issued, and offered the patent for license to the big players. They turned him down, then cried foul when he sued them for violating his patent. I don't think they can realistically claim to have been ambushed or trolled.
Reform of patent law may be a legitimate topic for debate, but Doyle played by the rules as he found them. He was up front and public about what he was doing the whole time. Every mortal effort and every conceivable argument have been made by the bigs to take him down, but the patent stands. Like everyone else, he deserves at least to have the truth spoken about him.