6 ms·

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs wanted to sue Sun

23 points by chegra84 17y ago

arockwell 17y ago
No new information in this article. Its just a rehashing of Jonathan Schwartz's blog entry: http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/ http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis...
- nkassis 17y ago
  This is one really good reason why google should have gone after sun. 8 billion for the patent portfolio of Sun is a bargain. It might not be IBM's patent chest but it's pretty darn big too and varied.
wallop 17y ago
Makes them sound like a bunch of squabbling children.
- nfnaaron 17y ago
  With billion dollar toys that they will take and go home with if you don't play the way they want.
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    This makes patents sound like what they are. Legalese ammunition. Sun had a treasure trove of some of the Internet's most valuable patents - ranging from search to microelectronics - so no one in the technology industry could come after us without fearing an expensive counter assault. And there's no defence like an obvious offence Read the original blog post posted elsewhere in these comments. The Inquirer doesn't deserve more hits for this.
    - illumin8 17y ago
      Patents are just ICBMs in the cold war between large corporations. Each corporation stockpiles enough of them that any legal threat will end in mutually assured destruction of all parties involved. The Inquirer is a terrible rag, as well. They not only copy Schwartz's blog post, they interpret it in cringeworthy ways. Sorry, Steve Jobs had not been "using concurrence so long he forgot what it was called." Concurrence just had graphical effects similar to Keynote, and Schwartz was reminding Jobs that Apple's products had infringed on Sun's patents as well.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
nkassis 17y ago
This sounds like a group of bullies in a schools playground.
naz 17y ago
Maybe Microsoft approached Sun about licensing for OpenOffice as a preemptive strike about the .NET patent infringement, and got exactly what they wanted.
tedunangst 17y ago
... says former Sun exec who no longer works there.
wicknicks 17y ago
"there's no defence like an obvious offense" -- Sweet!
marr 17y ago
Now that Oracle has these patents, what might we expect to see happen?

23 points by chegra84 17y ago

No new information in this article. Its just a rehashing of Jonathan Schwartz's blog entry: http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/ http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis...

nkassis 17y ago
This is one really good reason why google should have gone after sun. 8 billion for the patent portfolio of Sun is a bargain. It might not be IBM's patent chest but it's pretty darn big too and varied.

wallop 17y ago

Makes them sound like a bunch of squabbling children.

nfnaaron 17y ago
With billion dollar toys that they will take and go home with if you don't play the way they want.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  This makes patents sound like what they are. Legalese ammunition. Sun had a treasure trove of some of the Internet's most valuable patents - ranging from search to microelectronics - so no one in the technology industry could come after us without fearing an expensive counter assault. And there's no defence like an obvious offence Read the original blog post posted elsewhere in these comments. The Inquirer doesn't deserve more hits for this.
  - illumin8 17y ago
    Patents are just ICBMs in the cold war between large corporations. Each corporation stockpiles enough of them that any legal threat will end in mutually assured destruction of all parties involved. The Inquirer is a terrible rag, as well. They not only copy Schwartz's blog post, they interpret it in cringeworthy ways. Sorry, Steve Jobs had not been "using concurrence so long he forgot what it was called." Concurrence just had graphical effects similar to Keynote, and Schwartz was reminding Jobs that Apple's products had infringed on Sun's patents as well.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

nkassis 17y ago

This sounds like a group of bullies in a schools playground.

naz 17y ago

Maybe Microsoft approached Sun about licensing for OpenOffice as a preemptive strike about the .NET patent infringement, and got exactly what they wanted.

tedunangst 17y ago

... says former Sun exec who no longer works there.

wicknicks 17y ago

"there's no defence like an obvious offense" -- Sweet!

marr 17y ago

Now that Oracle has these patents, what might we expect to see happen?