Google Loses Bedrock Suit, All Linux May Infringe

blair1q writes "CNet reports that Google has lost the lawsuit brought by Bedrock, for infringing on Patent 5,893,120, 'Methods and apparatus for information storage and retrieval using a hashing technique with external chaining and on-the-fly removal of expired data,' and has exposed the Linux kernel, in which the infringing code reportedly appears, to liability for patent-license fees. Red Hat also participated in the suit, arguing that the patent was invalid, but the court decided otherwise."

Comments

Re:Bedrock is patent troll, and the patent is bogu

[Hazel Bergeron]

How can you have a friendly venue for a particular sort of legal case? Isn't there any sort of oversight which deals with what is an obvious sign of partiality? I can see a jury being biased in some way by being picked from, say, a very religious area... but why have judges at all if they're even less likely to impartially apply the law?