Google: Sun Offered To License Java For $100M

alphadogg writes "Sun Microsystems offered to license its Java technology to Google for $100 million, a Google attorney said Thursday, attempting to show that Oracle is out of touch as it seeks billions from Google for patent infringement. Oracle and Google were in court for a hearing in Oracle's lawsuit accusing Google of patent infringement in its Android OS. Judge William Alsup was in a feisty mood, warning Oracle that 'this court is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oracle Corporation' and telling Google that Andy Rubin, who runs its Android business, will be 'on the hot-seat' at trial. He also criticized both parties for taking unreasonable positions regarding the amount of damages owed for the alleged infringement."

Re:So is this an example?

[Lance Dearnis]

A sign that they're recognizing that the system has a problem, which, let's be honest - is a great step forward in and of itself. With more pressure from judges like Alsup, maybe we can start to see a move away from the purely-adversarial legal process; where both sides demand the moon because not doing so will just weaken their position to no gain...and because with less time wasted in trial, the lawyers earn less in legal fees. But, hey, even if he just stops at fixing the symptom, at least he's bloody fixing the symptom. Good for the judge.

Now seeing what Slashdotters...

[bhunachchicken]

... have always talked about on here.

Software patents are tired, pointless and ultimately just fucking dumb.

Watching the patent wars that are continuing to errupt in the mobile telecoms market is clear evidence of this. Everyone is suing everyone else for breaching ideas, rather than implementations.

I may have gotten this completely wrong, due to all the Chinese Whispers that comes with this kind of thing, but if it's true, how on earth can Apple patent the idea of recognising a phone number in a piece of text. Jesus Christ, you can do that with a fucking regular expression..!

(surely the above is not what they're suing HTC over, right???)

Software patents need to go, as this is all starting to become fucking ridiculous.

Instead of innovation to draw customers and and generate revenue, Microsoft, Apple and even now HTC are reaching into their portfolios and waving crappy bits of paper in each others faces.

"Customers? We don't need customers!" they screech. "We're just going to make our money off you, instead!"

Stupid, stupid, stupid.