Microsoft told the Web's leading standards body that it's considering making changes to its Internet Explorer browser in light of a recent ruling against the company in a patent infringement lawsuit. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) issued a statement Thursday indicating that Microsoft is mulling its options after a federal court earlier this month found that plug-ins and applets in Internet Explorer (IE) infringed on patents held by Eolas Technologies and the University of California. The software giant was ordered to pay $521 million to the Web technology company and the university.

"In the near term, Microsoft has indicated to the W3C that they will very soon be making changes to its Internet Explorer browser software in response to this ruling," Steven R. Bratt, chief operating officer of the W3C, said in a statement. "These changes may affect a large number of existing Web pages." This week the standards body held an ad hoc meeting for its members, including Microsoft, during which people were asked to offer their opinions regarding any changes the software maker should make to IE. The objective of the meeting was to evaluate potential near-term changes that could be implemented in browsers, authoring tools and Web sites as a result of the court case. Roughly 50 individuals showed up at the meeting in San Francisco, with many others participating via a teleconference call, a W3C representative said.