Eastman Kodak Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc. have settled their lawsuit over whether Sun infringed on Kodak's patents in creating the Java platform. The two sides came to an out-of-court agreement Wednesday night, before they would enter the penalty or awards phases of a trial in which a jury found Sun guilty last Friday.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and neither Kodak nor Sun would comment on the settlement. But Kodak said earlier this week that it was seeking more than $1 billion in damages from Sun. A Rochester, N.Y., jury found Oct. 1 that Sun infringed on Kodak's patents when it created Java and released the technology in 1995. Kodak is based in Rochester and is the city's largest employer.
News source: eWeek
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and neither Kodak nor Sun would comment on the settlement. But Kodak said earlier this week that it was seeking more than $1 billion in damages from Sun. A Rochester, N.Y., jury found Oct. 1 that Sun infringed on Kodak's patents when it created Java and released the technology in 1995. Kodak is based in Rochester and is the city's largest employer.
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At present the new venture is being called "Exclaim," but this is apparently only a temporary name and is likely to be replaced before the firm starts trading. Cousens is joined in the new venture by Europlay Capital Advisers, the Los Angeles based firm which is headed by industry veterans Sean Brennan and Mark Dyne and has advised on a number of major industry deals in recent years.
It's expected that along with the Cheltenham and Manchester studios - accounting for some 160 employees - "Exclaim" will also take possession of several of Acclaim's products in development, including Interview with a Made Man and Heist.

well they are and they are getting the pattents pretty easily... just look at pfizer for example...
It seems to me to be something that was dealt more in local economics than patent rights to begin with.
A major or in this case the major Rochester NY employer brings a charge to court with the possible pay out of $1Billion. Should the local government favor Sun which is obviously not a local or Kodak which if this lawsuit is lost could mean the loss of many possible jobs in the immediate marketplace.
karma is a b!tch after pissing off MS for so long, its good to see sun get a taste of its own medicine.
as for #1, wtf do u mean patenting an idea is wrong? you think its right that one person spends their life devoting to one new peice of technology or something, and that should be freely available for others to use and profit off?
and why is it proposterous to patent a gene? what if you created that gene biochemically by sequencing the DNA to.. i dont know.. let plants live in harsh conditions? should you not be able to have rights over what you created? its no different than using building blocks like wires and metal to create a new appliance, this time the building blocks are dna nucleotides
And don't be stupid. Kodak didn't spend "their life devoting to one new peice of technology"... they bought the patent from Wang. Please read up about something about you go off on it. Try this article for starters.
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