Microsoft has settled a long-running and expensive lawsuit with Eolas Technologies, a start-up backed by the University of California that alleged Internet Explorer infringed a patent.

"We're pleased to be able to reach an amicable resolution in this long-running dispute with Eolas and the University of California," the company said in a statement Thursday, but declined to share further details. Eolas couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The suit concerned technology that lets Web browsers call up separate applications or plug-ins such as Flash or Java within a Web page. While at the University of California at San Francisco, Eolas Chief Executive Michael Doyle led a team that worked on the technology in the patent, and he spun off Eolas to help commercialize it, according to Eolas. Microsoft revamped Internet Explorer to work around the patent in 2005.

Eolas prevailed earlier in the case, with a court awarding damages of $521 million in 2003 and the U.S. Patent Office upholding the validity of the Eolas patent in 2005. However, a Supreme Court decision this year weakened Eolas' case, and Microsoft said it expected the damages in the case to be revisited.