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The verdict is in for the Oracle vs. Google trial on whether Java was used improperly in the development of Android. The answer? Yes, sort of.
The jury ruled that Oracle has proven that Google’s admitted use of Java was infringing on Oracle’s API. There was no decision on whether it fell under fair use. Google’s already moved for a mistrial.
Here’s the thing, though: Android is not in any serious danger here. There will probably be many more months of trials and appeals and proceedings before we get down to anything final, and then it will probably be a large settlement. [Twitter]
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Sun had to be trolling Google when they asked for $1billion in damages – now they are only entitled to hundreds of thousands in damages; mere change for Google I would imagine.
Yeah, as far as win or losses go this is a paper win for Oracle, but since it could be entirely negated if it is decided that Google use of the “structure, sequence, and organization” or Java falls under fair use. In which case Oracle will have not much more that a huge lawyers bill to show for their trolling.
I took the whole lawsuit to mean that Sun are struggling to find any relevance any more and are cashing in their chips and becoming patent trolls.
I think it was all a vendetta deal. Oracles boss was Jobs mate, he bought Sun with the intention of suing Google. That way he could please Jobs and make money. This is my humble opinion.
I wasn’t aware of this kind of bias/vendetta going on in the background but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
I seem to recall that Google and Oracle had closed door meetings to work out a settlement but when those broke down, no doubt Google realised that the whole thing was a bit of a sham and that they could get away with a lesser fee this way and save face rather than pay a larger settlement and in doing so admit that they copied code verbatim.
From Groklaw (http://www.groklaw.net/):
Google won everything but the one issue that the judge has to decide anyway, the API SSO issue. The jury found, as they had been instructed to assume for the purposes of deliberation, that APIs can be copyrighted, the structure, sequence and arrangement of APIs, but that is by no means established. The same question, in a b) section, asked if fair use excused any infringement if found, and the jury couldn’t resolve that issue. But the judge has to decide whether or not that is true, that APIs can be protected by copyright. That comes later this month. Meanwhile, Oracle prevailed only on 9 lines of code that Google admitted prior to trial to have included by mistake and then removed from current Android. Oracle’s own expert, the judge pointed out in court, valued those 9 lines of code at zero. This is 9 lines out of millions. So that means, if we are looking at damages, that so far Oracle has won nothing. There is no liability. You can’t have infringement without considering fair use, Google asserts, and there will be briefing on that. Somebody has to decide that fair use issue. And then the judge has to decide about the API copyrightability issue. If he rules that APIs can’t be copyrighted, as the EU Court of Justice just ruled, then fair use is moot. And Oracle takes nothing at all from the copyright phase of this litigation, and this was heralded far and wide by Oracle people as the big ticket item, if you recall.
Don’t let anyone fool you. Today was a major victory for Google. That’s why after the jury left, our reporter says that Google’s table was laughing, and Oracle’s mighty glum. And I see some journalists are surprised or confused, because they have been listening to a steady flow of Oracle FUD from the wrong people. Remember the headlines about this being a $6 billion dollar case? It never was and now it never will be.