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Google Loses Bedrock Suit, All Linux May Infringe

Posted by timothy on from the take-one-guess-which-district dept.

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."

2 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Not here.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We dont have software patents in the real world.

  2. Re:Bedrock is patent troll, and the patent is bogu by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's just you. The patent is on garbage collecting a hashtable/linked list combination while it is in use.

    That sounds so immensely innovative that I'm not at all surprised that a patent was granted for it.