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Red Hat Sued Over Hibernate ORM Patent Claim

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the done-it-first dept.

fmarines writes "Firestar Software has filed a patent claim against Red Hat for infringing on a patent Firestar filed in 2000 covering O/R mapping. The amount of the lawsuit was not disclosed. The complaint centers around JBoss 3, and the patent claims that JBoss was given prior notice that marketing, distribution, and support services violates Firestar's patent, and that Firestar 'has suffered and will continue to suffer substantial damages.' Firestar produces the ObjectSpark, an transactional object mapping engine which appears to not have had a new release since May 2003, according to the Firestar press release page."

11 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Blah by ms1234 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So they're not doing that well and need cash?

    1. Re:Blah by DRM_is_Stupid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I know it's technically correct according to business jargon, but they say they're "suffering losses" - as if it's their God given right to have an artificial monopoly.

    2. Re:Blah by ThosLives · · Score: 4, Insightful
      What's really interesting is that if I open a restaraunt, and a guy next door opens a restaraunt, and people like the food and/or service of the guy next door better, my restaraunt will "suffer losses."

      I do not think that "suffering losses" means what people think it means...

      --
      "There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
  2. Legal System Upgrade by freemywrld · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What we really need here is a proverbial SPAM filter on lawsuits for things like this. It is no wonder that people and/or companies with valid claims tend to hesitate to take their claims to court, knowing that this kind of hogwash is bogging down the system.
    Seems like Firestar's time could be better spent actually developing something new, instead of sitting around waiting for an excuse to sue in order to generate some cashflow.

    --
    Support a true independent artist - Leila Lopez
  3. Conspiracy theory... by jkrise · · Score: 3, Insightful

    1. JBoss gains widespread acceptance, and threatens Sun's Java model, dominance.
    2. Despite Sun introducing new enhancements, developers are switching to the JBoss architecture and portal in droves.
    3. RedHat acquires JBoss, gets sued, and loses - 'tainting' JBoss in the process.
    4. Sun wins - one big competitor tainted and gone.... MS wins - open source apps around JBoss fall away.
    Sound plausible?

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
    1. Re:Conspiracy theory... by powerpointmonkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Last time I looked at Jboss, it was written in Java, and as such is helping to Spread Sun's dominance.

      Unles of course you meant to say Sun's application server / portal server dominance, in which case, please excuse me while I fall of my chair laughing. - Neither products are going anywhere.

      Jboss is not a competitor to Sun. IBM and BEA maybe, but not Sun.

  4. This kind of "lawsuit inc." business needs to stop by plasmacutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We need reforms which basically state that if you choose to enforce your patents selectively then you should lose them.

    You either license to everyone you intend to allow use of your patent or you lose it.. you should not be allowed to hide in wait and opportunistically/arbitrarily ambush companies and developers.

    This should especially apply to companies who apply for patents, then sit on them while other companies do the work, only to sue them and take all their credit and revenue.

    That's not capitalist.. it's parasitic.

    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  5. Re:Time for Red Hat to leave the USA by Erwos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Be real. Do you really think Red Hat is going to up and leave the country because of a single software patent suit? This is the same Red Hat that established a legal defense fund for just this sort of thing - if anything, I would think they're going to enjoy the opportunity to crush these guys like a bug.

    As for the "EU not being that stupid", good luck with that - they've proven time and time again that the US has no monopoly on idiocy.

    -Erwos

    --
    Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
  6. Re:Invalid patent; no defense by dbIII · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Recall that RIM was forced to settle to the tune of half-a-billion dollars even though the patents were in the process of being successfully challenged.
    I vote that we call this sort of bottom feeding patent extortion scam RIMMING.
  7. Re:Buy a company - get sued! by macdaddy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    To set the groundwork for a lawsuit against a larger company. If they sue a smaller company that is less able to defend itself then they've created a great foothold to move forward with a suit against the big boys.

  8. Too Obvious by Hoolala · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ORM is not rocket science. Practically all the possible techniques/strategies are well-known. If this patent is not overturned, ORM vendors will be in trouble and so will any software (written in an OO language) that persists data/state in a database.

    --
    http://buddytrace.com/