The so-called "906 patent" is owned by the University of California and licensed to the one-man company Eolas. In short, it covers a means for a Web browser to incorporate active content such as audio, video, and animated graphics into a Web page automatically. In 2003, Eolas sued Microsoft for patent infringement and won the $521 million award it was seeking. The courts agreed to reexamine the case, and in January of 2004, a federal judge upheld the ruling.

This is bad news for Web developers and Web site owners alike, because it means that Web sites won't be able to work the way they did. Furthermore, this ruling is damaging to Web standards and the operation of the Internet as it has developed. Naturally, this situation is strongly opposed by Web standards committees and several have presented evidence against it. The patent is suspect, because such technology was in use long before the patent was issued, but to date this has not affected the opinion of the courts.

Rather or not the patent ultimately stands has become irrelevant because Microsoft has issued a work-around and is enforcing that work-around in their next release of Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, Web sites that incorporate active content will need to be rewritten to be usable with Internet Explorer, and because that is the most commonly used browser, virtually all Web sites will need to comply. It is anticipated that most Internet Explorer users will upgrade to the new version. The cost to modify existing Web sites to comply with these changes could easily reach tens or hundreds of billions of dollars.

With this in mind, Web developers need to start creating Web pages that conform to the new Internet Explorer requirements, and Web site owners need to be prepared to update their sites accordingly or find that they suddenly do not work for the majority of users.

Scioto WebTech is creating all new sites in conformance to the new Internet Explorer requirements. Contact us for information about revising your site before your users begin encountering problems.