The patent wars have begun

Both Microsoft and Sun bought indemnity from SCO after it filed the now infamous lawuit against IBM in March 2003. Both paid not inconsiderable sums of money to SCO at a time when it needed a lot of capital. Coincidentally, SCO's lawsuit, if successful, would have crippled Linux, an operating system which has been keeping senior executives at both Sun and Microsoft awake at night for many years.

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"For a trend to form, more cases would have to be forthcoming. Having said that, a trend is certainly possible, if not likely, because accusations of patent infringement are part of the territory for successful technologies. Thus, the more successful FOSS becomes, the more likely patent holders will come out of the woodwork to harass it looking for ransom."

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"Well, we can't say this is frivolous without reviewing the merits, because to be frivolous means that the suit has no basis under the law. While I agree with your implication that such suits should be considered frivolous (i.e. not permitted under the law), the only thing to do short of changing the law is to fight each threat hard and straight ahead so that patent holders do not come to believe that FOSS is easy prey for their attacks."

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