Google Loses Patent Lawsuit over Linux Kernel

In yet another case of software patent abuse, Google lost a lawsuit brought against it over its use of the Linux operating system, particularly in its data centers.

What should have been an open and shut case, or perhaps something that shouldn't have gone to court in the first place, turned into yet another example of just how messed up the patent system in the US is and how patent trolls can make an easy living suing companies doing the actual innovating.

Google lost the lawsuit filed by Bedrock Computer Technologies and has to pay $5 million to continue to use the technology allegedly infringing on the Texas-based company's patent. Google plans to fight the decision.

The patent is called "Methods and apparatus for information storage and retrieval using a hashing technique with external chaining and on-the-fly removal of expired data," and essentially describes a rather basic programming technique used in far more than just the Linux kernel, which is what the batch of lawsuits is targeting.

Google is hardly the only company targeted by the lawsuit, Yahoo, MySpace, PayPal, Amazon, Match.com, AOL have all been attacked. Of course, Google can easily pay $5 million and be done with it and so can all of the other big companies.

The problem is that, if the verdict, reached by an East Texas court, notorious for its very patent friendly courts, stands, countless other companies using Linux could be next. Essentially, it would become an usage tax for Linux itself.

When the lawsuits first started being filed, Red Hat went on the offensive and filed a lawsuit against Bedrock, claiming that not only is Linux not infringing, but the patent itself is not valid. That lawsuit is still ongoing.

"Google will continue to defend against attacks like this one on the open source community," a Google spokesperson said.

"The recent explosion in patent litigation is turning the world’s information highway into a toll road, forcing companies to spend millions and millions of dollars defending old, questionable patent claims, and wasting resources that would be much better spent investing in new technologies for users and creating jobs," Google added.