An article from GROKLAW details a recent win by Kodak against Sun in a lawsuit related to... ah, heck, who can figure this out these days. The lawsuit involved some patents that Kodak bought a few years ago and now they think they should have $1.06B for their troubles.

This is another situation where the US Patent systems seems to have run amok with the legal system and it is threatening to destroy technological innovation, especially where it relates to small organizations. The threat that a large company with deep legal pockets and a huge portfolio of ridiculous patents (or a small one in a similar situation of ludicrous patents and a lawyer at the helm) will take away all of the profits from revolutionary development and implementations. It makes it hardly worth it to try and do something new under these circumstances.