University of California Sues Facebook, Walt Disney and... - CNN

The University of California joins a new war against the giants of social networks, trade and entertainment, Facebook, Walmart, and Walt Disney, for the interactive technology patents.

Eolas Technologies, a U.S. company associated with the University of California, sued last Wednesday to these companies for more than four patents that believes that they are infringing.

Interactive technology patents include viewing hypermedia and interaction. They were created by the University of California licensed to Eolas, a company associated with Texas, which is chaired by Michael Doyle.

The company was founded to help commercialize the patent technology, as they reported on their website at the University of California. Doyle and his team helped to develop interactive technology while working at the University of California in San Francisco.

A spokesman for the University of California said that he considered these patents as public goods and that, therefore, "a value must pay just when a third party exploits this asset of the University with non-profit".

On the other hand, a spokesman for Facebook said the company believes that demand lacked Foundation. "We will fight with force," he said. In relation to Walmart, the company said that it respects the rights of intellectual property of third parties. "We take these complaints seriously and we are investigating the matter," he said. Finally, Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

A spokesman and several lawyers from Eolas not performed on Wednesday statements immediately.

INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY

The demand is related to patents of interactive technology that web browsers to host applications in the. As reported by the company on its website, "provides rich interactive online experiences for more than one billion Internet users around the world".

One of the patents, 906, has already been the subject of previous claims by Eolas. In the proceedings against Microsoft, which got the amount of $ 565 million in 2004, according to the company in a press release on its website.

However, two of the patents cited in the latest demands were declared invalid in February by a Texas jury in a previous trial. That action was directed against Amazon, Google, Yahoo and others. The process by which Eolas could launch new demands relating to the same patent was not clear.