'Sun did not approach NetApps about licensing any of Sun's patents and never filed complaints against NetApps or demanded anything.' With those blogged words Sun's CEO Jonathan Schwartz has refuted the allegation by Network Appliance that Sun 'aggressively demanded' cross-licensing fees from NetApps related to the Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL) file-system technology included in ZFS.

Schwartz refuted NetApps' claim completely and comprehensively, as follows:

"First, Sun did not approach NetApps about licensing any of Sun's patents and never filed complaints against NetApps or demanded anything.

NetApps first approached StorageTek behind the cover of a third party intermediary (yes, it sounds weird, doesn't it?) seeking to purchase STK patents. After Sun acquired STK, we were not willing to sell the patents, We've always been willing to license them. But instead of engaging in licensing discussions, NetApp decided to file a suit to invalidate them. To be clear, we never filed a complaint or threatened to do so, nor did anyone, to the best of my knowledge, in the ZFS community.

We're all focused on innovation and winning customers, not litigation.

Second, a word on patents - we use our patent portfolio to protect communities, and indemnify customers - you need only look back to our settlement with Kodak when they attacked the Java community. (That case was heard in Rochester, New York, Kodak's home town, which is a tad different than the East Texas venue Net App appears to have chosen.)

Finally, and perhaps most importantly (again, read here for why), I'd like to thank our friends at NetApps for ensuring every single customer in their installed base is aware of the outstanding economics offered by ZFS as a file system and storage virtualization platform. Please feel free to (learn more here) and get a free trial Thumper storage device here. At $1.50 per gigabyte - open source storage is about a third the price of competitive offerings, with better performance. "