Jonathan Schwartz, Sun Microsystems and Software Patents
--> [ Sun | News | Schwartz 2004-09-30 ]
Jonathan Schwartz has been the president of Sun Microsystems since 2004-04. Schwartz has personally applied for business method patents on behalf of Sun and declared in his blog: "I believe in IP. ... Copyright, Trademarks, Patents, I believe in them all. ..." and asserted that patents must be available for "all endeavors from drugs to academic work". After Sun was badly hit by Kodak's patent lawsuit, Schwartz immediately licensed the patents for 90 million USD. Later Schwartz wrote that patents, as granted in the US, are giving him the creeps, and that non-obviousness standards should be higher.
News & Chronology
2004-10-29 US Schwartz (Sun): Tech issues that'll give you the creeps (Florian Mueller's comments; --> Sun vs Kodak)
2004-10-01 Sun loses against Kodak, must pay damages & royalties for use of
2004-09-30 US Jonathan Schwartz: "I believe in IP" -- Sun CEO in favor of patents for "all endeavors from drugs to academic work"
General
- president of Sun Microsystems since 2004-04, previously in Java software group
- personally filed for patent on copyright licensing model in 2004-09..10
- does patent applications himself and receives cheques for them (patent lawyer background?)
former McKinsey employee
author of naively worded "I believe in IP" blog page
Tiemann (Redhat) to Schwartz: "We can't trust you" -- mentions various ways in which Schwartz is harming open source software, including support for software patenting
