- NetApp Litigation – an update: Sun’s take on the NetApp/Sun lawsuit proceedings. “Over the last two months, the PTO has granted the first five of our reexamination requests, finding in all the cases that multiple ‘SNQP’ [substantial new question of patentability] exist for each patent (one request filed in June is still pending). These include, among others, US Patent Nos. 5,819,292; 6,857,001 and 6,892,211, ‘core patents’ according to NetApp. With regard to one NetApp patent, the ‘001 patent, the PTO has issued a first action rejecting all the claims of this patent. Based on the positive response we received from the PTO, we asked the trial court to stay a portion of the litigation. Obviously, it doesn’t make sense to go through the expense and time of litigating a patent in court if the PTO is likely to find it invalid. The court agreed with our request and at least one NetApp patent has thus far been removed from the litigation.” Dave Hitz’s declaration is also an interesting read; looking forward to seeing the inevitable NetApp blog reply. (Seen at c0t0d0s0.)
- Comcast gets spectrum for WiMAX femtocells, wireless services: “Comcast has announced plans to deploy these Femtocells via its cable internet subscribers. These small and cheap devices will provide wireless access to subscriber’s houses with backhaul going through their Comcast Internet connections.” I had been wondering why Comcast and the other cable ISPs joined Clearwire…