Google Linux servers hit with $5m patent infringement verdict

This is devastatingly frightening for a couple of reasons. One, this shows, from the comments to the article, that there is (are?) a weak point in patent litigation, East Texas (& probably in CA, too). Either Google didn't adequately present prior art (unlikely), or East Texas are too biased/ignorant to render proper verdicts. Second, obvious, and previously existing tech is proving inadequate against frivolous patents. If the SCOTUS doesn't fix this in M$ v. i4i, we'll all have something to worry about.

The jury finding is utterly absurd. One can only hope that Google's lawyers find a basis for overturning the verdict

We really need something like this to make its way to the SCOTUS. If Bilski is any indication, they are not friendly to patent absurdity these days.

Irony oh irony : Bedrock is founded by jurist David Garrod, who is actively involved by The Public Patent Foundation(PubPat is a non-profit organisation to combat misuse of the patent-system in America) : http://www.pubpat.org/garrodglossariesreleased.htm PubBat has reacted in 2009 about this : http://thepriorart.typepad.com/the_prior_art/2009/06/pubpat-...

I've used the particular trick described in the patent countless times in the past 15+ years. A number of those have ended up in various Free Software projects I've hacked on (adding LRU caches, mostly). I have to agree, pretty d@mn scary.

When I interviewed at Mozilla, one of the interview questions I was asked dealt with this technique as well.

The prior art goes back to the late 1960s... This is a TRUE junk patent.

@JaseP --

Who knows -- much of the stuff that goes back to the 60s actually goes back to the 40s, and some of it waaaay back as it turns out merely to implement computing ideas that people came up with before the equipment could keep up with their creativity, or mere digital recreations of things people just do.