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Sun vs Kodak : they settled!
News got out in the last 2 hours that Sun and Kodak settled
out-of-court for a one-time payment of $92m that would cover any disputed patents and Sun "did not admit any wrongdoing in the deal". Apparently, although it disputes the patents and denies infringment, Sun doesn't want a protracted legal process, even if it eventually rules in its favor. "We are eager to put this punitive litigation behind us, to have reached a decision in the best interest of our stockholders, customers and employees, and to focus our future activities on the evolution of the Internet and Sun's place within it," said Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz. It seems that they (Sun) estimate that the climate of fear, doubt and uncertainty surrounding the case would be more damaging to them than the cost of the settlement; an economic decision rather than a moral one. According to the Register "Many technophiles have charged that Kodak's claims are far too broad and could spell trouble for the software industry." Well the extortionists are now free to go after other companies. |
#2
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http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/07/tech...un_kodak.reut/
Mike Henley wrote: News got out in the last 2 hours that Sun and Kodak settled out-of-court for a one-time payment of $92m that would cover any disputed patents and Sun "did not admit any wrongdoing in the deal". Apparently, although it disputes the patents and denies infringment, Sun doesn't want a protracted legal process, even if it eventually rules in its favor. "We are eager to put this punitive litigation behind us, to have reached a decision in the best interest of our stockholders, customers and employees, and to focus our future activities on the evolution of the Internet and Sun's place within it," said Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz. It seems that they (Sun) estimate that the climate of fear, doubt and uncertainty surrounding the case would be more damaging to them than the cost of the settlement; an economic decision rather than a moral one. According to the Register "Many technophiles have charged that Kodak's claims are far too broad and could spell trouble for the software industry." Well the extortionists are now free to go after other companies. |
#3
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"ThomasH" wrote in message ... http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/07/tech...un_kodak.reut/ Mike Henley wrote: News got out in the last 2 hours that Sun and Kodak settled out-of-court for a one-time payment of $92m that would cover any disputed patents and Sun "did not admit any wrongdoing in the deal". Apparently, although it disputes the patents and denies infringment, Sun doesn't want a protracted legal process, even if it eventually rules in its favor. "We are eager to put this punitive litigation behind us, to have reached a decision in the best interest of our stockholders, customers and employees, and to focus our future activities on the evolution of the Internet and Sun's place within it," said Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz. It seems that they (Sun) estimate that the climate of fear, doubt and uncertainty surrounding the case would be more damaging to them than the cost of the settlement; an economic decision rather than a moral one. According to the Register "Many technophiles have charged that Kodak's claims are far too broad and could spell trouble for the software industry." Well the extortionists are now free to go after other companies. Instead of 92 big ones, Kodak should have asked Sun to borrow it's board of directors for a couple of years....That might have done Kodak some real good....... |
#4
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According to the Register "Many technophiles have charged that Kodak's claims are far too broad and could spell trouble for the software industry." Well the extortionists are now free to go after other companies. You gotta love those technophile patent law experts . . . Eric Miller |
#5
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In article ,
Mike Henley wrote: It seems that they (Sun) estimate that the climate of fear, doubt and uncertainty surrounding the case would be more damaging to them than the cost of the settlement; an economic decision rather than a moral one. I think there's another reason, which may be quite sound. Sun could have appealed, but they might not have won, and even if they had, it may be better to have this patent *not* overturned. Kodak has demonstrated that it's happy to use it in a predatory manner, and Sun has competition for Java (most significantly, Microsoft). If Sun got decent terms in their OOC settlement with Kodak, they may see it as an acceptable price to pay to keep the threat of similar litigation hanging over Microsoft's rival technology, whilst Java, them having settled with Kodak, is in the clear. IOW, this could well be about actually *creating* FUD for someone else, namely Microsoft. |
#6
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On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 15:33:18 -0700, Mike Henley had this to say:
News got out in the last 2 hours that Sun and Kodak settled out-of-court for a one-time payment of $92m that would cover any disputed patents and Sun "did not admit any wrongdoing in the deal". Apparently, although it disputes the patents and denies infringment, Sun doesn't want a protracted legal process, even if it eventually rules in its favor. "We are eager to put this punitive litigation behind us, to have reached a decision in the best interest of our stockholders, customers and employees, and to focus our future activities on the evolution of the Internet and Sun's place within it," said Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz. It seems that they (Sun) estimate that the climate of fear, doubt and uncertainty surrounding the case would be more damaging to them than the cost of the settlement; an economic decision rather than a moral one. According to the Register "Many technophiles have charged that Kodak's claims are far too broad and could spell trouble for the software industry." Well the extortionists are now free to go after other companies. I wonder what Kodak will do with the money? Develop a new film? Perfect the DCS 14? Pay a final dividend to the shareholders? Give the fat cat directors a pay rise? -- DD™ "And that's all I got to say about that" ~ FG |
#7
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On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 15:33:18 -0700, Mike Henley had this to say:
News got out in the last 2 hours that Sun and Kodak settled out-of-court for a one-time payment of $92m that would cover any disputed patents and Sun "did not admit any wrongdoing in the deal". Apparently, although it disputes the patents and denies infringment, Sun doesn't want a protracted legal process, even if it eventually rules in its favor. "We are eager to put this punitive litigation behind us, to have reached a decision in the best interest of our stockholders, customers and employees, and to focus our future activities on the evolution of the Internet and Sun's place within it," said Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz. It seems that they (Sun) estimate that the climate of fear, doubt and uncertainty surrounding the case would be more damaging to them than the cost of the settlement; an economic decision rather than a moral one. According to the Register "Many technophiles have charged that Kodak's claims are far too broad and could spell trouble for the software industry." Well the extortionists are now free to go after other companies. I wonder what Kodak will do with the money? Develop a new film? Perfect the DCS 14? Pay a final dividend to the shareholders? Give the fat cat directors a pay rise? -- DD™ "And that's all I got to say about that" ~ FG |
#8
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William Graham wrote:
"ThomasH" wrote in message http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/07/tech...un_kodak.reut/ Mike Henley wrote: News got out in the last 2 hours that Sun and Kodak settled out-of-court for a one-time payment of $92m that would cover any disputed patents and Sun "did not admit any wrongdoing in the deal". Apparently, although it disputes the patents and denies infringment, Sun doesn't want a protracted legal process, even if it eventually rules in its favor. "We are eager to put this punitive litigation behind us, to have reached a decision in the best interest of our stockholders, customers and employees, and to focus our future activities on the evolution of the Internet and Sun's place within it," said Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz. It seems that they (Sun) estimate that the climate of fear, doubt and uncertainty surrounding the case would be more damaging to them than the cost of the settlement; an economic decision rather than a moral one. According to the Register "Many technophiles have charged that Kodak's claims are far too broad and could spell trouble for the software industry." Well the extortionists are now free to go after other companies. Instead of 92 big ones, Kodak should have asked Sun to borrow it's board of directors for a couple of years....That might have done Kodak some real good....... I think that Michael Benveniste outlined the complexity of the problem very eloquently in the other discussion about this topic. It is not so easy to draw the line between rightful claim and extortion. The problem lies in the vast number of software patents and practically no effective evaluation of their novelty component or even of possibly contradicting or overlapping subjects! If you admire or glorify Sun management, you are mistaken! They are in deeep, deee-eeep trouble. Just look at their stock crawling around $3-4 (down from $100 or so) and some 10-11 quarters of losses, declining market share. Only the 1.5 billion which they got from Microsoft (to settle Java litigation) makes their balances look better in last quarter. Their employee Nr 1 (Andy von Bechtolsheim) returned to the company, maybe the old team Andy/Scott will spark some ideas now and deliver better strategies! Thomas |
#9
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"ThomasH" wrote in message ... William Graham wrote: "ThomasH" wrote in message http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/07/tech...un_kodak.reut/ Mike Henley wrote: News got out in the last 2 hours that Sun and Kodak settled out-of-court for a one-time payment of $92m that would cover any disputed patents and Sun "did not admit any wrongdoing in the deal". Apparently, although it disputes the patents and denies infringment, Sun doesn't want a protracted legal process, even if it eventually rules in its favor. "We are eager to put this punitive litigation behind us, to have reached a decision in the best interest of our stockholders, customers and employees, and to focus our future activities on the evolution of the Internet and Sun's place within it," said Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz. It seems that they (Sun) estimate that the climate of fear, doubt and uncertainty surrounding the case would be more damaging to them than the cost of the settlement; an economic decision rather than a moral one. According to the Register "Many technophiles have charged that Kodak's claims are far too broad and could spell trouble for the software industry." Well the extortionists are now free to go after other companies. Instead of 92 big ones, Kodak should have asked Sun to borrow it's board of directors for a couple of years....That might have done Kodak some real good....... I think that Michael Benveniste outlined the complexity of the problem very eloquently in the other discussion about this topic. It is not so easy to draw the line between rightful claim and extortion. The problem lies in the vast number of software patents and practically no effective evaluation of their novelty component or even of possibly contradicting or overlapping subjects! If you admire or glorify Sun management, you are mistaken! They are in deeep, deee-eeep trouble. Just look at their stock crawling around $3-4 (down from $100 or so) and some 10-11 quarters of losses, declining market share. Only the 1.5 billion which they got from Microsoft (to settle Java litigation) makes their balances look better in last quarter. Their employee Nr 1 (Andy von Bechtolsheim) returned to the company, maybe the old team Andy/Scott will spark some ideas now and deliver better strategies! Thomas To tell you the truth, I know little of either the Sun management, or the Kodak management....I was merely making a joke about the settlement. I know Kodak had been doing badly during the last 20 years or so, and they are no longer part of the Dow 30. I think they could use some new management to steer them in a new direction. If they can get 92 million dollars from Sun, then perhaps Sun's management could do a better job for Kodak. - Hence, the joke........ |
#10
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"Eric Miller" wrote in message ...
According to the Register "Many technophiles have charged that Kodak's claims are far too broad and could spell trouble for the software industry." Well the extortionists are now free to go after other companies. You gotta love those technophile patent law experts . . . Eric Miller They don't need to be patent experts... they only need to have enough basic expertise in their industry to know that it doesn't make sense for someone to come in the 2000s from an altogether other industry (Kodak), and claim to have patented broad technologies, in the 1990s, that they were already familiar with and using in the 1980s and 1970s. |
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