>>>But fearing this was on the agenda, we were prepared for the meeting. Microsoft is no stranger to imitating successful products, then leveraging their distribution power to eliminate a competitive threat – from tablet computing to search engines, their inspiration is often obvious (I’m trying to like Bing, I really am). So when they created their web application platform, .NET, it was obvious their designers had been staring at Java – which was exactly my retort. “We’ve looked at .NET, and you’re trampling all over a huge number of Java patents. So what will you pay us for every copy of Windows?” Bill explained the software business was all about building variable revenue streams from a fixed engineering cost base, so royalties didn’t fit with their model… which is to say, it was a short meeting.
>>>---------------------------
>>>If Oracle decides that the above has any legal credibility, Microsoft could be next. Could .NET end up like J++?
>>>
>>
>>If MS lawyers have earned their pay this should be covered in their cross license deal.
>>
>>my 0.00000000000000000000000000000001 EUR [IANAL]
>>
>>thomas
>
>Then it begs the question, what if Oracle elects not to renew said license?

Ask MS to forward you a copy of said cross license so you can check for yourself if there is a indemnitiy for products developed while under the protection of the cross license which covers the case of non-renewal or onesided retraction. Then calculate the odds of it being weasel safe. Even J++ was not killed, it was put on back tracks - it even got a DotNet-Implementation for a couple of years. MS protected the early customers (last century...) pretty well (I had implemented a few things in it, and at that time it was among the best of breed for back-then java). This would "only" result in a shakedown of a sum vfp, IPy and IRuby could be developed for a couple of dozen years <bg>.

my 0.00000000000000000000000000000001 EUR [IANAL]

thomas