Sun loses Java patent case to Kodak

By Steve Malone

Posted on 5 Oct 2004 at 13:32

Sun has lost the case brought against it by Eastman Kodak. The photographic giant convinced a Federal jury that Sun infringed its patents in the development of the Java programming language. Now Kodak is asking for $1.6 billion in damages.

The case related to patents that Kodak acquired when it bought Wang Laboratories in 1997. The patents related to the way object managers communicate and identify themselves and their data formats to each other.

Kodak told the court that Sun broke a 1996 Technology License and Distribution Agreement (TLDA) when it published and distributed Java's Remote Method Invocation (RMI), Interface Definition Language (IDL) and Java Applet Environment (JAE). Sun responded by saying that Kodak must have seen the disputed technology prior to bringing the case and therefore must have agreed to them.

Although it has yet to comment, Sun will no doubt appeal the case. The company may seek to invalidate the patents at the US Patent Office as happened recently over the challenge to Microsoft's patenting of the FAT file format. However, once again a US jury has opened the way for a huge payment to a company that has sued over an alleged software IP infringement.

No doubt the news will send lawyers digging ever deeper into company's old patents in search of a big payout - if they needed any more encouragement.