On: Sun employees competed to see who could file the g...

[TotlolRon]

Sun employees competed to see who could file the goofiest patent ... Viacom sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom.

Ah, the things employees of companies who sue Google are capable of. Horrific.

[eru → TotlolRon]

Did Sun ever sue Google?

[btilly → eru]

No, but Viacom sure did. In fact their lawsuit included infringing materials that their own employees uploaded to Youtube.

And I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people who tried to file joke patents are now working for Oracle, which is also suing Google.

[jjcm → btilly]

To be fair though, the patents were filed with the intention of corporate defense. That is, if a company like IBM sued them again, they could use the patents that they had to come to some sort of low-damage settlement. When Oracle bought Sun, this defense became an offensive weapon - something far different than the Viacom situation. Repurposing joke patents is far different from fabricating evidence.

[shrikant → eru]

No, Viacom did.