NetApp Files Patent Suit Against Sun
Imagine your core business is software. Now, imagine you decide to enter into litigation over patents with a much larger, more established company that also has software as a core business. Smart move? Or not-so-smart move? In general, I’d say not-so-smart. Why? Well, with the software patent landscape being what it is, the overwhelming probability is that the smaller company infringes huge numbers of the larger company’s patents. That means, the possibilities for potentially expensive counter suits are simply enourmous.
So… NetApp (smaller company) is suing Sun Microsystems (larger company) for patent infringement in regard of Sun’s ZFS strategy. I would be amazed if NetApp wins this one: by win, I mean stops Sun’s ZFS strategy. Of course, the devil is always in the detail. However, for the moment, about the only thing this lawsuit does is make it look like NetApp is running scared of Sun’s ZFS-based storage strategy…
Update: Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz has now blogged about the NetApp lawsuit. It’s a post well worth reading.
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