When you are irrelevent in technology, you look to litigation to save your company's rapidly dimming future. Instead of seeing new markets and new products, you try to bully your way into getting a cut of someone else's success.
Oracle, who just purchased Sun Microsystems has just declared their irrelevence by trying to use litigation to get dealt in to Google's Andorid ecosystem.
First, it's questionable that Oracle will prevail, and with each day, Oracle's lawsuit and behavior look more like disgracefully litigious and magnificently bankrupt SCO Group. The parallels start with their allegation of copyright infringement and then using a miniscule fragment of code as proof. There's much to be settled, and it will take years to arrive at that settlement. It's entirely possible that the smart phone as a product will not even exist when litigation concludes.
Second, even if Oracle wins, what will it win? Not much, and at the same time enough. Oracle's day in the sun as a major player in software will sunset as it focuses on an easy existance of living off of monthly royalty checks. No innovation required. No real costs, just a monthly check. A check not so big as to be a drag on the Android ecosystem, but probably enough that Larry Ellison will get a raise by selling off the cost producing parts of Oracle and existing as a intellectual property holding company. From software tycoon to patent troll.
From hunter-gatherer to sessile filter feeder. The circle is complete.
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