More than 430 organizations spanning all fifty US states have fired off a letter urging Senate leaders to oppose a bill that would overhaul the country's patent system. And that includes tech outfits like Qualcomm and AmberWave.
A month ago, Network Appliance sued Sun Microsystems, alleging the server and software company's ZFS file system infringes seven NetApp patents. Sun on Thursday fired back with a suit that claims NetApp violates 12 of Sun's.
Sun's suit also argues that NetApp's patents are invalid and that it doesn't infringe them anyway.
"This can be used against the GPL and pressure Linux vendors to accept patent 'protection' deals."Sun's case will be an interesting one to watch. Groklaw points out that Microsoft is at the moment a defendant in more than 45 patent infringement cases, but it rarely responds like Sun has. It is believed that Microsoft will continue to complain about 'those nasty trolls' and use some external ties like SCO or maybe even Acacia to attack Linux while using constant FUD (as opposed to real action) against Linux. It will also embed patent poison in its many licences. This can be used against the GPL and pressure Linux vendors to accept patent 'protection' deals.
Also in the news: Vonage settles Verizon's patent suit
The lawsuit, along with two filed by other phone companies, had cast a heavy shadow over Vonage's future. The company's service enables subscribers to connect their phones to their broadband connections for about $25 a month using a Vonage adapter.