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"Appeals ensued but were inconclusive; the case ultimately settled out for more than $100 million, with just over $30 million going to Eolas' co-plaintiff, the University of California."

It's pretty depressing that taxpayer-funded universities are also in the patent troll business.

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Perhaps the idea that research facilities could become self-funding via IP was well-intentioned, but I agree that it was (is) ultimately counter-productive. It is counter-productive in several ways, including discouraging free scientific communication, creating barriers to entry, and establishing a tragedy of the anti-commons, ...

It was testimony from the said taxpayer-funded university that killed the patent.

"While UC lawyers cooperated with the plaintiffs, two UC Berkeley-trained computer scientists were key witnesses in the effort to demolish the Eolas patents."

I took that to mean the testimony was from people who had studied at the university, not the university itself.

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