10.25.07
Sun Microsystems Flexes Its Muscles and Proves the Value of Defensive Portfolios in Open Source
“You touch us, we hit you”
The following new development is a particularly interesting one because OIN might sooner or later jump to the rescue and become active with its highly extensive portfolio.
In previous coverages about the ZFS patent case [1, 2] we pointed out that patent trolls are here to stay as long as no action is taken either by USPTO or those who come under attack. Since the USPTO won’t be reformed properly any time soon [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], Sun has decided to strike back. Sun’s CEO wrote in his blog an item that is interpreted further in the following article.
Consequently, “Later this week, we’re going to use our defensive portfolio to respond to Network Appliance, filing a comprehensive reciprocal suit. As a part of this suit, we are requesting a permanent injunction to remove all of their filer products from the marketplace, and are examining the original NFS license–on which Network Appliance was started,” Schwartz said.
In another subsequent article, even more is said and good will is revealed.
Sun promises to donate half of legal bounty to free software foundations
Sun Microsystems is preparing to file a patent suit against storage vendor Network Appliance (NetApp), chief executive Jonathan Schwartz revealed on his blog.
It is the first bit that’s of interest here.
Related articles:
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Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.