Every year, I teach the AMOS class, a lab course on “Agile Methods and Open Source” that combines lectures with a real software project that ideally turns into a startup (see the AMOS Project concept, in German). To explain open source, I have to introduce students to intellectual property rights, of which most have been blissfully unaware of until then. Nothing teaches concepts better than a colorful story, and so I have been using the IP strategies around Java to make this dry topic come alive. For fun, comments, and corrections, I’m providing the short version of my talk below, including commentary. (You can also download a PDF version of the talk, with our without notes, licensed as CC-BY 3.0. If you find this useful for teaching, please tell me.) Students at this point have a basic working understanding of intellectual property and exclusion rights. Please let me know what you think! Finally, IANAL.

Java is an important technology powering the modern web and in particular enterprise applications. It has a checkered intellectual property history, and with the recent acquisition of Sun, the Java creator and owner, by Oracle, things only stand to heat up. This slide set discusses some of the more interesting issues around Java intellectual property and its strategic use in business.

1. What is Java?
2. Short Java IP Story Time-Line
3. Three Substories
4. Java’s Challenge to the Windows Platform
5. Microsoft and Java
6. The OpenJDK Strategy (Open Core Model)
7. Certification of Compatible Implementations
8. Threats to Commercial Revenue
9. Main Tools to Curtail “Competitors”
10. Problems for Alternative Implementations
11. Problems for OpenJDK Forks
12. Thank you! and References

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