Only "minor changes" for Microsoft’s browser

SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp. said that it would make changes to its Internet Explorer Web browser as it seeks to resolve its differences with Eolas Technologies Inc. over technology that lets mini-applications work with Microsoft's software.

Microsoft, which lost an initial $521 million verdict in August to Eolas and the University of California over browser technology, said that it will make "minor changes" in the way the Internet Explorer handles Web pages using ActiveX controls.

ActiveX allows other programs such as Macromedia Inc.'s Flash, Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime, RealNetworks Inc. RealOne, Adobe Systems Inc.'s Acrobat Reader, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java Virtual Machine and Microsoft's Windows Media Player, to work together with Internet Explorer.

Eolas contended that it holds the technologies that enable some of the features within ActiveX, a set of technologies that lets users view multimedia content within Web pages.

Microsoft said it would provide documentation to developers so that Web pages can be updated appropriately. Users visiting Web pages that are not updated after the changes go into effect early next year are likely to see a dialogue box before Internet Explorer loads ActiveX.

Eolas originally brought its lawsuit against the world's largest software maker in 1999, charging that Microsoft had used Eolas' patented Web browser technology which allows other mini-applications to work with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.

Microsoft said it and Eolas were still in the process of submitting their post-trial motions and briefs and that a final judgment has not yet been made. Eolas had argued that the technology for "plug-ins" and "applets" made it possible for Microsoft to compete against the Netscape Navigator browser.

Netscape, which eventually became part of AOL Time Warner Inc., later lost its position as the top Web browser to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Eolas, a closely held Illinois company founded by former University of California professor Michael Doyle, had originally sought licensing fees that would potentially have totaled $1.2 billion.

© Reuters