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Sun and Kodak Settle Out of Court
prostoalex writes "The patent dispute between Eastman Kodak and Sun Microsystems in regards to three patents that EK claimed Sun was violating with Java, came to an end. Thursday afternoon Associated Press announced the companies settled out of court with terms of the deal unclear yet. Before Eastman Kodak was looking for $1.06 billion in damages."
How can 3 patents be worth 1.06$ billion dollars? I thought Kodak was in the crapper these days anyway. Would this have been their only means to making any sort of a profit?
Steal This Sig
They can't afford to take the risk of a $1b judgement. That's why they settled. And the details of the settlement are probably not available for disclosure because it's in neither Sun nor Kodak's best interest to disclose them.
Gentoo Sucks
I agree with you; instead of people changing the system so that they don't take the losses that sun did, they will instead flood the courts in hopes of making the easy money that kodak made.
"is now a good time to buy Kodak stock?"
;)
Not really. Seeing as how Kodak will now have to turn around and pay off Honeywell.
Invent, patent, don't produce, then sue. Sounds better than 100 hr work weeks bringing a project together...
Does anyone remember the Polaroid vs. Kodak debacle?
Maybe that experience is what gave Kodak the idea. The sheer number of software programs constantly being developed also makes patent searches an overwhelming task. And how do you research prior art in proprietary software licensed under terms that forbid reverse engineering?
Software is developed so rapidly a 20-year blockade is impractical; it never wears out, so the traditional argument that patents are needed to stimulate stagnant industries doesn't apply. Patents hold back rapid development, and they are designed to protect mature industries, once the rapid phase is completed, but with software, there is no end to the rapid development, no maturity plateau that can be beneficially protected.
As Microsoft has learned, software doesn't wear out. You can run Windows 95 in 2004, if you so choose, and the only motivation to upgrade is if the customer wants innovation, new bells and whistles. So patents aren't needed to encourage invention. Software companies have to invent, because their product never wears out.
Who else is on the hit list? Microsoft and Sun are out, since MS already apparently has a license for the patents, and Sun just paid them off...
Is Apple next? They have their own Java implementation, don't they? IBM and Ximian/Novell, perhaps, too? IBM's VM could be infringing, and so could Mono's VM... and that's just sticking in Java-ish territory. Who knows what else they can hit with such a broad patent.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
According to the Groklaw discussion, the jury trial came from a town where Kodak is one of the two main employers. One can only suspect that this may have swayed the jury.
This is definitely a case for PubPat to tackle. There has got to be significant prior art on these patents.
To anyone thinking of looking, prior art must fulfil the following requirements (IANAL):
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
One of Sun's key arguments in its 'Solaris and JDS are superior to Linux because...' campaign is that Sun's products are indemnified against IP problems, and we can expect to see a Microsoft patent used against Linux in the near future - in a FUD atttack to drive people towards Solaris as 'The only safe choice in x86 *NIX'.
Microsoft wants all UNIX users corralled up behind a single company so they can then simply drive that company into the ground, instead of having to play 'whack-a-mole' with Linux distributors.
Sun are taking advantage of this by profiting when they can, but they must realise this is a business strategy that is assuming 'eventual defeat' - Sun are clearly not able to cut a path as an independent technology company, and feel that becoming the 'New Apple to Microsoft' - e.g. expect a Microsoft Virtual PC port with a bundled XP/Longhorn Licence to Solaris x86 soon - is the best way to ensure survival in the short to medium term.
Clearly, they have no long-term strategy, unless it is to simply cede their server market to Windows NT and fade quietly into oblivion like SCO.
If the USA doesn't move beyond Windows on the desktop, there are a lot of other countries who will - Software patents as implemented by the US government, are overwhelmingly stupid, and even if every US Linux distributor faces massive taxes, you will have to deal with the fact that Linux is as prevalent, and as easily developed in Europe or India, or Japan, as it is in the US.
Linux is not going out like this, and this whole 'intellectual property lawsuit' business is just making me, as a programmer, computer user and an educated, open minded person, really angry.
If companies like Redhat are making money out of selling something they also give away for free, this is largely a result of the groundswell of dissatisfaction with the crap we have had to pay so much money for up till now -
Make a good product using ethical business practices and provide clear benefits to a supporting community of users, with contracts based on mutual trust, not meaningless stockmarket numbers and the threat of litigation, and people will be interested in buying it, using it and developing it.
When did 'The network is the computer' get replaced by 'The Microsoft(R) Network (c) Microsoft Corporation 2004 is the computer (pat. pending)'?
I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
Let's do the math. The claim is for $1bn. They settle for $92m. My guess is that both sides decided that Kodak has less than 10% chance of winning.
so now if I write a program that infringes on these patents using java as the programming language... am I safe because sun has already paid my licensing fees?
...amazing grace how sweet the....
If that's true then Sun has paid the price for us...making the ultimate sacrifice.
There are a few things that you have to consider:
1) The lawsuit was filed in a town where Kodak was one of the major employers, so the jury would almost certainly be biased.
2) Because of #1, there was a decent chance that Sun would have lost and been forced to pay the $1bn (which is considerably more than 92 million).
3) If sun faught it, lost, appealed, etc, the cost to them in legal fees and PR would have likely been more than the 92 million that they pain.
summary? They took the (relatively) cheap option.
Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.
... and P-code came before Java (in what, 1983?). It's like a broken record, reading about these stupid patents that have *obvious* prior art to anyone "skilled in the craft", as the patent office used to say. Sun should have stood up to them and slammed them to the wall.
ERROR 144 - REBOOT ?
yes, but mono has not.
Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. --Aaron Levenstein
yes, but mono has not
That could be a very clever attack. When mono was first proposed, naysayers assaulted it: "Don't waste your time! Microsoft will wait until your project works, then reveal patents that make your implementation illegal!". The nascent Mono team responded that Microsoft had promised not to enforce patents against them.
But now, if Kodak has patents that Mono infringes, they might go shut it down without prodding from Microsoft.
(Just another sign of why software patents are bad in general)