Did you see the recent news? James Gosling (father of Java) and others are saying that back at Sun they were told to patent as much as possible just to build a defensive patent portfolio, so they actually had a running joke of who could file the most absurd patent. One of Gosling’s patents is in the suit.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/burnette/why-software-patents-are-a-joke-literally/2039
Yep - I saw it this morning. Really seems nominal though. I’ve been living around these monsters for years (resident and worker in Silicon Valley.) Lawsuits/patent wars are part of the valley culture (not a good part!)
To expound a bit, when I claimed that they would likely eventually cross-license and someone would give the other guy some money, this ties into the having a big patent portfolio. Your best defense against a patent lawsuit is to find some patents of yours the other guy has violated. This gives you leverage in the negotiations.
After learning a little more about the Google way of dealing with Java...you can tell that Gosling doesn’t think much of it. I put this in the “He’s a purist” category. I think Google is doing what they need to to get the job done. If Gosling was RIGHT, Java ME would have succeeded. Note that Android IS succeeding. Obviously Oracle noticed anyway ;-)