Is GCJ/Classpath headed for patent trouble?

[John Gabriele]

Sorry if this issue has been long ago laid to rest -- I searched
the mailing list archives, and the GCJ and Classpath sites' FAQs,
but didn't find a definitive answer.

I just had a look at Sun's Java copyright doc
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/ 
jcopyright.doc.html
which includes this:

> Sun Microsystems, Inc. (SUN) hereby grants to you a fully paid,  
> nonexclusive,
> nontransferable, perpetual, worldwide limited license (without the  
> right to
> sublicense) under SUN's intellectual property rights that are  
> essential to practice
> this specification. This license allows and is limited to the creation  
> and distribution
> of clean room implementations of this specification that:
>
> (i) include a complete implementation of the current version of this  
> specification
> without subsetting or supersetting;
>
> (ii) implement all the interfaces and functionality of the required  
> packages of the
> Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, as defined by SUN, without  
> subsetting or
> supersetting;
>
> (iii) do not add any additional packages, classes, or interfaces to  
> the java.* or
> javax.* packages or their subpackages;
>
> (iv) pass all test suites relating to the most recent published  
> version of the
> specification of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, that are  
> available from
> SUN six (6) months prior to any beta release of the clean room  
> implementation
> or upgrade thereto;
>
> (v) do not derive from SUN source code or binary materials; and
>
> (vi) do not include any SUN source code or binary materials without an  
> appropriate
> and separate license from SUN.

Do GCJ & Classpath actually meet all of these requirements? These seem  
pretty
stiff for GNU projects... If GCJ & Classpath don't meet these req's,  
isn't the FSF
just waiting for the unpleasant day Sun decides to enforce the above  
conditions?
What is the developers want to take these projects in a different  
direction than
Sun wants?

If GCJ and Classpath are indeed safe from major patent issues (from  
Sun) for the
long haul, I think it would be worthwhile to add items regarding this  
to the web
site's FAQs.

Thanks.