This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: Sun gets shot by patent law Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants

This is a disturbing case. Given that I'm a Smalltalk guy, I had to stop from guffawing every time the author used the term "Java" and "Innovation" in a sentence, but - all snarkiness aside - this is a horrid decision. To be honest, I also wonder how inept Sun's lawyers had to be to lose such a case. It's not cas if VM technology is anything new.

Heck, right here at Cincom there's a prime example of it - Mantis, a RAD tool originally built for mainframe development - launched in 1983. Then there's UCSD Pascal - introduced in 1970. I remember working with that in the late 70's on the family's Apple IIe. of course there's Smalltalk, which dates from the early 70's, and Lisp - which dates from the late 50's (although the first VM came later, I'm sure). The point is, VM technology of the sort Kodak won on was all being created either before or at the same time as the early Wang systems - the early 70's.

I rather suspect that Kodak went after Sun because Sun has a lot of cash on hand, but is bleeding (from a year on year revenue perspective) - they could have hit MS on .NET (or heck, any of us Smalltalk vendors for that matter) - but MS would likely win, and none of the Smalltalk vendors have enough cash to bother with. I hope Sun appeals this decision - it would be nice if Kodak could be fined for wasting everyone's time with such a bogus suit...