Tim Morrison Evan Groth Mark Merriken Alok Parikh

What is Patent Infringement  Patent: A grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time.  Patent Infringement: Violation of the rights secured by a patent.

Case Recap  EOLAS vs. Microsoft  Patent Infringement suit on against Microsoft  Microsoft gets sued for breaching EOLAS patent on distributed hypermedia method for automatically invoking external application providing interaction and display of embedded objects within a hypermedia document  EOLAS wins the suit by gaining $521 million dollars from the Microsoft Corporation  Microsoft obtained license from the EOLAS to use the plug-in technology  Microsoft proposes change in Internet Explorer to avoid paying license fees to the EOLAS  This change would create tons of problems in the normal working of web pages that use multimedia plug-in technology

Stakeholders  Primary:  Microsoft and EOLAS  Secondary:  Internet Explorer Users

Technical Problems  Internet Explorer will no longer be able to display embedded objects.  Web development could be stifled due to the requirement of programmers to learn new methods of embedding.  Websites will break and potentially remain unusable until a specialist is hired to make corrections.

ACM Code of Ethics  Honor property rights including copyrights and patent  Give proper credit for intellectual property  Know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work

Social Problems  Disrupting Society Meantime ○ Removal and development Online Communities ○ Youtube ○ Music Scene ○ Artists Business ○ Advertising ○ Asthetics ○ economy

Ethical Problems  Profound Effects User Business  Computer Literacy Some users only know IE  Patent Trolls Expedited process ○ Need change ○ Unfair to defendant

Technical Solutions  Microsoft could purchase Eolas’ license thus requiring zero changes to Internet Explorer. Once the license expired Microsoft could implement their own embedding method.  Microsoft could “side-step” Eolas’ patented method of embedding by slightly modifying it.

Solutions to Social and Ethical Problems  3 Ethical Principals Deontology ○ Does MS have a duty here? Contractarianism ○ Is there a violation?

Deontology  Meteoric Microsoft Huge Influence Customer First Prima Fascia  Solution Purchase License

Contractarianism  The Contract Eolas Patent Violation  Solution Purchase License? ○ Admit to stealing Develop New Code

Recommendations  Choosing the Course of Action What does MS want? ○ Protect Reputation Admit to Stealing ○ To Help Users  Prevent User End Havoc Purchase License  Prevent Financial and Personal Damage Develop New Code