SONY charged with infringement concerning Blu-ray

A patent infringement suit, which names Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Pictures, and Sony DADC, asserts that products marketed under the Blu-ray name infringe on a patent that is owned by Target Technology for reflective layer materials in optical discs.

Separately, BusinessWeek has an op-ed by Jim Zemlin which includes

"Touch one member of the Linux community, and you will have to deal with all of us," (...) "Microsoft is not the only - perhaps not even the largest - owner of patents in this area. Individual members of the Linux ecosystem have significant patent portfolios. Industry groups, such as the Open Innovation Network and our own legal programs at the Linux Foundation, aggregate our membership's patents into an arsenal with which to deter predatory patent attacks. With our members' backing, the Linux Foundation also has created a legal fund to defend developers and users of open-source software against malicious attack. We don't expect to but, if needed, we will use this fund to defend Linux."

The op-ed concludes: "We ask Microsoft to stop engaging in FUD campaigns that only serve to undermine confidence in the U.S. intellectual-property system. Instead, please work with us to make the patent system tighter, more reasonable, and efficient for everyone in the software business."

[from a post by Scott Fulton at betanews.] IPBiz still wonders about the meaning of the remark by IBM's Kappos, suggesting that "open innovation" correlates with incremental, non-patentable advances.