October 07, 2003
Eolas Straw
You've probably heard of that notorious company Eolas, who have been going around claiming this and that patent for basic obvious software techniques. I noticed on the company's website that their about us page mentions this little tidbit:
A final note: Eolas also 'invented' (designed, actually) the now-ubiquitous stylized "e" logo. IBM purchased rights to use it from us in 1997.
Guess what. The early form of NETTLE had that "e" logo in 1996. And not just the "e", but the "n", the "t", and the "l". That logo was the first thing I thought of when I registered the domain. I used Paint Shop Pro to create it. When the NETTLE site first went live in 1997, it went live with that logo. So I guess I ought to sue Eolas for, hmm, how about 500 million dollars?
(While we're on the subject, I developed software starting in 1987 that did what EOLAS claims they invented in 1994. By 1993 my company's software had evolved to support MIDI, Adobe Acrobat's PDF viewing, zooming of images, etc. Where was EOLAS then? While we're at it, my same company developed an online auction service for a client, and we shipped it in 1992. In 1992, where was the company that successfully sued eBay recently, for their 1994 auction software invention?)
Posted by brian at October 7, 2003 07:48 AM
Eolas don't say when they invented the @e, merely that they licensed it in 1997. They could have made it in 1985 and just sat on the licence :)
Still, don't let me dissuade you from sueing the likes of Eolas. Software patents are a blight (they've been suggested over here in Europe recently, before the Eolas/MS stuff).
Posted by: Deebster at October 10, 2003 08:17 PM