Java as we have known it could be in for a chill thanks to a ruling by a federal jury in upstate New York that says the programming language infringes on several patents Kodak acquired from Wang Laboratories. Now, questions remain:* Will users of Java, accustomed to free access, now have to license the language under all circumstances, since Kodak is now seeking royalties for past usage and could want them going forward, too? * Will this stifle innovation not only on Java but in all areas of application development, with developers, be they independent or at large software companies, afraid of infringing somebody’s patent?* Should patents be applied to software at all? Many wonder how patents were applied to technology that may have predated the issuance of the patents in the first place. Sun initially dismissed the claims as being without merit. But now it appears that the ruling of a single jury has opened a very large Pandora’s Box for developers. Technology Industry