We now know a little more about the Netscape patents that Microsoft bought from AOL. It’s believed that the patents that Microsoft either bought outright or acquired a license for over a billion bucks include:
Patent No. 5657390, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which has since been transformed into Transport Layer Security (TLS). SSL/TLS sets up an encrypted communication channel between Web browsers and servers. It’s used in practically every Internet financial transaction
Patent No. 7478142. Packing Web-browser based applications This describes how to package applications that are delivered over the Internet and then runs inside a Web browser. You could argue that this covers all Web 2.0 technologies.
Patent No 5774670 and Patent No. 5826242, Cookies. These patents cover cookies and their use. Web servers and browsers use cookies for advertising, e-commerce shopping carts, persistent Web site logons and on and on and on.
You get the idea. These are all essential Web technologies.