Eolas has been tormenting browser makers for over a decade with patents they claim cover browser plug-ins, but last week a jury in Tyler, Texas invalidated their patents after defendants presented compelling prior art. In other words, it took years of litigation and massive legal expenses to do something that patent examiners could easily have taken care of with a Google search. Wikipedia has a useful history of Eolas, including Microsoft’s embarrassing “click to activate” change to Internet Explorer to try to get around Eolas’ patent.