Sun Microsystems

Why? That’s the question we’ve been asking ourselves. Maybe its obvious to most of the capital markets and pundits alike, but… standing upon the proverbial rock from which we survey the “weather” on the financial horizon… we have to wonder why Oracle would sue Google for distributing a free product that is based, in part, on another free product? Why would Oracle put the lifespan of Android (and likely the Java ecosystem as a whole) at risk of near-term death?

This week’s Patently Obvious report focuses on the patent holdings of Isilon Systems, Inc. M&A activity in the technology sector has heated up dramatically in the past month as companies scramble to strengthen their IP positions and acquire key personnel. News of imminent rollups in the storage and security sectors specifically has driven speculation into the identity of the next impending targets.

In August of 2010, Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, initiated a lawsuit against 11 tech companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, YouTube, eBay, Netflix, OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples, alleging that they were in violation of patents granted to Interval Research in the 1990's while he was in a management role at that entity.