Look out, because I'm about to offer an opinion that might be regarded as optimistic, and is therefore subject to ridicule by the masses.

IMO, the only thing that is "conditional" in this whole thing is that the alliance between Sun and Fujitsu for this endeavor is probably conditioned on Sun acquiring a license for the MMP.

Think it through. Fujitsu was apparently "convinced" re: the MMP, and paid a healthy $32M for their license. Would Fujitsu knowingly enter an alliance/JV with Sun while recognizing the risk to supply chain if TPL "got excited"?

There is virtually no way that Fujitsu's license would cover Sun. Even if the Fujitsu license language was silent in this regard (future JVs with non-licensees), such JV would not have been encompassed in the intent of Fujitsu's license.

So where might this place us? In a real good bargaining position with Sun, IMO. At least better than before this arose.

The above assumes that the JV product infringes (I couldn't get the pdf to open, so here I'm relatively clueless).

JMHO,

Hurry up TPL, and do some persuasive arguing with the PTO!

SGE