Pei-Yuan Wei

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Pei-Yuan Wei (Chinese: 魏培源; pinyin: Wèi Péiyuán) created ViolaWWW, one of the first graphical web browsers.

Pei-Yuan Wei was born in Taiwan^{[citation needed]}. He graduated from Berkeley High School^{[citation needed]}in 1986 and received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Controversy

Pei-Yuan Wei is at the center of a controversy over patents relating to embedded objects in a web browser ^[1]^[2]. At question is whether his browser, ViolaWWW, had the capability to launch embedded objects, prior to the date a patent was filed by Michael David Doyle of Eolas, and the University of California^[1]. If it did, it would constitute prior art, which may invalidate the patent issued to Eolas^[1]^[2]. If it did not, in addition to major financial penalties against such companies as Microsoft, the way the World Wide Web and the way browsers that surf it work may be forced to change ^[1].