This case at once underscores the good and the bad of the jury system. The good: surprising as it may seem to many, jurors usually do try to evaluate the facts

This case at once underscores the good and the bad of the jury system. The good: surprising as it may seem to many, jurors usually do try to evaluate the facts, and apply the law as instructed, in a conscientious manner - and, probably 90% of the time, the result is sound. The bad: Red Hat and Novell undoubtedly put up a 7-figure defense to get the case to a jury and then had to undergo the risk of sweating it out to see if this particular jury might be gulled into giving sleazeballs or opportunists a victory - this is something an average defendant just can't afford to do. Another note for those who can't abide by the idea of software patents: even though an orgy of such patents has been granted this past 30 years, there does come a time when all of the dubious and obvious ones do enter into prior art through lapse of time and, in this sense, the problem is at least to a degree self-correcting (obviously, this is cold comfort for those who have to suffer under such patents during their long tenure). That really was what won the day for the defendants in this case.