Is it possible to create static properties/methods of a bean class? Does the beans spec cover this?

The JavaBeans Specification (available from http://java.sun.com/beans/docs/spec.html) specifies that properties are not static, as they are attributes of specific bean instances. There is nothing that stops you from having methods that are static that look like property getter/setter methods. However, no bean builder tool will recognize them as JavaBean properties.