Oh, I'm not disputing the stupidity of patents. I mean, I think if you independently discover the same solution, there shouldn't be a case to answer.
But *if* Google knowingly infringed then... well... do people view it differently? If Google had infringed on a "Little Guys" patent, thus robbing them of a future... would people view it differently? I've thought about the lawsuit I've eventually come to the conclusion this doesn't effect me personally in the near or medium term. If they want to throw money at lawyers, that's their issue. Let the billionaires have their little windmills. On Aug 16, 5:39 pm, B Smith-Mannschott <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 09:27, Steven Herod <[email protected]> wrote: > > Out of curiosity, in all of this, we're absolutely certain no former > > Sun engineers, fresh from patenting a concept at Sun (or working on > > said patented code) moved to Google and reimplemented the same thing > > the same way? > > This is irrelevant. That's the beauty of patents. Google could have > imported engineers from Mars with no prior knowledge of any VM > implementation techniques. If they independently came to the solutions > covered by Oracle's patents, they'd still have to pay. > > So, boys and girls, before you write your next line of code, make sure > to consult all potentially relevant patent registries. Ignorance is > no defense. The fact that patents are written in impenetrable legalese > is no defense. The fact that it's often unclear if a patent even > applies until it's been tested in court is no defense. The fact that > testing said patent in court costs more than most mortals can afford > is also no defense. Happy hacking! > > (Software patents make me grumpy.) > > // Ben -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
