On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 09:27, Steven Herod <steven.he...@gmail.com> 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 javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
