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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."
According to news.com.com, it looks like Kodak is getting $92M out of Sun. Who's next?
-- "A chicken is an egg's way of making another egg."
...crap like this would help companies realize how messed up the patent situation in the US is right now. Unfortunately, it will probably only increase their zeal for patents and patent-related lawsuits, so that while they might lose a confrontation like this from time to time, they'll also be able to win some.
Settlements have no precedential value, so, the question(s) raised by Kodak's original patent prosecution claim remain... .NET operates in much the same way as Java.
:\
I'm sure other languages do as well...
geek. lawyer.
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 think you hit it on the head... Kodak in the crapper? YUP! Kodak and companies alike in the Photo/Film business are trying to grap a piece of the computer (especially software) market in anyway possible. Why? who needs film anymore? Consumer? commercial? nope.
Groklaw has the story also:0 0410071
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2
Invent, patent, don't produce, then sue. Sounds better than 100 hr work weeks bringing a project together...
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.
Time to ask the Public Patent Foundation to see if this patent can be overturned because of prior art and obviousness. Sounds like these patents are really good targets for both problems.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
As part of the settlement, Kodak asked they also agree not to go after the film developing business. It seems Kodak wants to keep Sun out of the Darkroom.
Okay, not really. Just a bad joke.
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?
A dying company goes on a binge of IP litigation. Why does that sound so familiar?
Are we speaking in terms of consumer products? I'm a commercial Photographer and i can gareentee that the Sinare 4x5 digital cameras we have coupled with the Sinar capture software are crisper and more true to the original product than are chromes. There are lots of Skeptics out there i know. We've done tests and test. We resorted to capturing an image (identical) with both Film and digital and printing high quality Kodak Approval Prints for both medias. We let the Clients decide. we haven't shot film in almost a year.
It is absolutely sad to see that a company that develops, implements, and pushes forward a field such as computing, and thefore society, can be sued by a company that created a vaguely similar idea that it abandoned because of their lack of vision.
Cheers... wait, no, no cheers today...
Adolfo
PS. I am guilty of abusing the use of run on sentences.
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
I dunno, $75 billion profit buys a hell of a lot of weather control R&D...
Pick up some SCOX while you are over there too.
You could even start a The Dying Company Files Worthless IP Lawsuits mutual fund.
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.
don't forget that if SUN actually won the case this would become yet another example of how screwed up the patent system is in the US and then potentially threaten SUN's own revenues from patents it has ownership of.
In the end, It's all bovine dung you know