Sun loses patent fight with Kodak Ouch. Kodak wants 1 billion dollars in damages. Well, I can't say that I feel too sorry for Sun. In fact, the same goes for Microsoft and Eolas. I'm sure there are lots of people that feel that Sun got a raw deal because they believe, like myself, that patents are government granted extortion monopolies. But wasn't it Sun that recently got a a billion dollars in a settlement with Microsoft over on going lawsuits about various infringements? And let's not forget Sun's latest patent on a painfully obvious business method.

What I think needs to happen is that the damages from patent lawsuits need to get much, much larger. Companies need to quake in their boots when patent lawsuits show up at their door. It seems that companies like IBM, Microsoft, HP, and Sun are more than happy at the moment to play along with this arms race for patenting ideas, and willing to tolerate the occasional loss. I'm sure that if these companies are faced with extinction from a single patent lawsuit, they'll borrow the RIAA's hotline to Congress to change this absurd system of doling out ideas.

(via Slashdot.org)