Sun Responds To NetApp Lawsuit – Sort Of….

Here is the official Sun response to yesterday's lawsuit alleging patent infringement by Network Appliance:

"From: Kristi.Rawlinson@Sun.COM [mailto:Kristi.Rawlinson@Sun.COM]

Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2007 6:08 PM

To: Kristi Rawlinson

Subject: Sun Statement - NetApp

 

Hi,

 

Following is Sun's statement in response to the lawsuit and subsequent

press release filed earlier today by NetApp.

 

NetApp's legal attack against Sun's open source ZFS solution which is

freely available in the marketplace is a clear indication that NetApp

considers Sun technology a threat, and is a direct attack on the open

source community. ZFS is the fastest growing storage virtualization

technology in the marketplace, and NetApp's attempt to use patent

litigation to inhibit the meteoric rise of open source technologies like

 

ZFS is tantamount to being unhappy with gravity. As Sun knows well, and

NetApps' customers obviously recognize, innovation works better than

litigation.

 

Many of the claims raised in the lawsuit are factually untrue. For

example, it was NetApp who first approached Sun seeking to acquire the

Sun patents NetApp is now attempting to invalidate. It is unfortunate

that NetApp has now resorted to resolving its business issues in a legal

 

jurisdiction (East Texas) long favored by 'patent trolls.'

 

Bottom line, Sun indemnifies its customers, and stands behind the

innovations we deliver to the marketplace.

 

Best regards,

Kristi

 

--

****************************

Kristi L. Rawlinson

Corporate Communications

Sun Microsystems

B: 650-786-6933

C: 650-799-7061

kristi.rawlinson@sun.com"

 

Here's what I find interesting:

 

1. I love the fact that Sun at least is still capable of playing a little offense. The entire first paragraph tries to make Netapp appear to be a big giant money grubbing beast for not only trying to take free ZFS ("the fastest growing storage virtualization technology")away from the poor, unwashed masses – but that they are also flagrantly attacking the sanctity of the open source movement itself! Brilliant! So, if I somehow wrote an operating system that happened to contain all the Solaris patents, and gave it away to anyone with lips, Sun would be ok with that? If Intel just happened to build a processor that contained eerily similar features and function (and code)to Sun's flagship (of course calling it Craps, which is Sparc backwards) – and gave the design away to anyone with an net connection, Sun would embrace the act as a milestone in progressive thinking?
2. They say that "many" of the claims raised in the lawsuit are factually untrue – which means some of them are true. Oops. Many are untrue? How many? Then to add insult to injury, instead of specifying how the claim of patent infringement is untrue, they go on to say how the chronology of events was untrue. Who is Sun's counsel, Dewey, Cheatem, & How? You never say things like "many" – you flagrantly deny. Did Bill Clinton teach you people nothing?
3. Then Sun makes the move of all moves – they insult Texas!!! These people have drive-through liquor stores and I'm fairly sure it's illegal to NOT have a gun on you at all times. Are you nuts? And what does an East Texas patent troll look like?

 

So, I'm not ready to concede a Netapp victory off of one email, but lets hope there is a little more behind the defense forthcoming. A much better response would have been "Sun doesn't comment on ongoing legal affairs, but believes these allegations to be frivolous attempts to slow down the tremendous success ZFS is having in the marketplace. We will defend our technologies and the right for people everywhere to take advantage of open source advancements with all of the resources we possess. While we firmly believe in the free market system above litigation, we will continue to fight for the rights of all within the legal system, and as always, completely indemnify any and all Sun customers." That would have made the points they were trying to make without leaving any room for anyone to get offended or to seem wishy washy on the issue.

 

Yesterday, I would have thought I'd have to make stuff up to keep this entertaining!

Comments

[Tom Petrocelli]

I see you are reacting to the Netapp/Sun dustup. I'm reading through the suit and patents now. I've only read the first patent but found some interesting tidbits:

1. Netapp actually references Sun's prior art in its filing. Ironic,isn't it? No unusual but ironic.

2. They also reference prior art from a paper deliver at USENIX in 1992, JFS, and VxFS and the Berkley Fast File System. That will beg the obviousness question. Is there enough differences enough so as not to be obvious to those familiar with file systems. They admit in the disclosure that the basic idea of cloning a file system node set so that system can be backed up live is not theirs. Beyond that the basic differences is that you don't copy all the data, only pointer table and
keep the old blocks around for the snapshot.

3. It would appear that the STK/SUN patent for snapshots and cloned file systems was issued before the NetApp one was filed.

None of this means that Sun is right or NetApp is right. It does mean that this is unlikely to be a slamdunk for anyone.