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Oracle wants billions from Google in its Android Java lawsuit
THE LEGAL FEUD between Oracle and Google over the alleged use of Java in Android could cost Google several billion dollars if Oracle gets its way.
A court filing in the controversial case was disclosed on Thursday, revealing for the first time the kind of damages payment Oracle is seeking, and the number is huge.
In the document Oracle claims that Google has been attempting to conceal the figure, but Oracle did not mind it being released to the public. Google revealed the information in a court filing and later requested that it be kept under seal by the court. It's understandable why it wouldn't want the information shared, as it suggests that damages should be in the billions, not millions, as some observers previously expected.
Given that the information comes from Oracle and it had no objection to it being revealed, US District Judge William Alsup ordered that Google make the document public, according to Reuters. The attempts to keep it secret ultimately backfired on Google, as now it appears that it is fearful over the total sum Oracle is seeking, which could have a major impact on its business if it loses the case.
The disclosure follows a dispute over Oracle's choice of damages expert, Ian Cockburn. Cockburn estimated that Oracle should be due around 50 per cent of Android profits, including profits from advertising, which is pretty much the only money Google makes on the open source mobile operating system. That figure could even jump to 150 per cent on the basis of willful infringement, effectively wiping out Google's Android profits and eating into its other profit as well.
It was not exactly clear at the time how much money this could really involve and what kind of damages claim Oracle would make on the basis of Cockburn's estimates, but now that it has been revealed that it wants "billions of dollars", it's not surprising that Google wants Cockburn's testimony thrown out.
The lawsuit began in August 2010 when Oracle accused Google of infringing its Java patents, acquired when it bought Sun earlier that year, in the Android mobile operating system. The case has gained notoriety in open source circles, because Android is open source and Java is partly open source, with both Sun and Oracle originally having promised to make it fully open source yet failing to deliver on that promise.
The trial is expected to begin in November and all eyes will be watching to see if the internet giant is brought to its knees by Oracle. µ
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Good grief, how can one respond to the ignorance (i.e. complete lack of knowledge) displayed in these comments.
Russel: The issue at hand is not the gazillion devices running licensed Java. It's the alleged purloining of Java code by Google and using it in Android. It will be pretty simple, either Google stole it or they didn't. A court will decide. Judging on what has come to light so far, there is a very real liklihood that Google stole the code (like MS did before it with Quicktime IIRC) and that Google will pay the price - probably a big number.
As for Oracle and the MySQL/OpenOffice thing. Well, I don't see too much evidence they wanted to kill those products. They just preferred more management than anarchy. Corporate preference and understandable. YMMV.
As for David's diatribe. He might start by researching what a "monopoly" is in a legal sense. In order to "exercise monopolistic power" you actually need to be one - which Oracle aren't yet I would submit. I read the HP court documents, and their claims are rather bold, and they might hold water, but it will really depend on a lot of pieces of paper not yet on the table. "Promissory estoppel" - got to love lawyers ;) Anyway, the Itanium IS dead. Microsoft announced and executed their departure from the platform long ago, so did the Red Hat. Let's face it, only HP needs Itanium because HP/UX, NSK and OpenVMS run on it. Oracle was just following the very clear trend. Oracle might get away with it on the basis of their claim actually being true. The most likely claims to hold water are breach of contract, because there are contracts. HP v. Oracle will be an interesting sideshow.
As for Google being a "good, cooperative corporate citizen", all I can say is "what are you smoking, man" because I want some it!
Dweeb
THIS PROVES THAT GOOGLE IS RUN BY ID10TS THAT DONT KNOW WHAT THEYRE DOING, USING IP THEY DONT OWN WITHOUT MAKING A BUSINESS AGREEMENT UP FRONT. TOO BAD, SO SAD.
STARTING TO LOOK LIKE THEIR OUT IS TO BUY UP ORACLE THEN. HA HA!
If Google's mantra is Do No Evil, Oracle's is surely Do No Good.
They are a horrible, disgusting, exploiting, evil slab of a company.
The sooner everyone possible turns on Oracle the better. They have designs on being bigger than Microsoft, and if this case is successful then everyone should watch out.
All your phones are belong to us!
Companies like Oracle (and Microsoft, Apple) who seek to litigate the competition away have painted themselves as the lowest form of anticompetitive corporate predators on the planet.
This Java lawsuit is the perfect example of legal entrapment (first by Sun, who did not act aggressively except toward fellow-predator Microsoft), and now Oracle, who apparently purchased Sun for the express purpose of weaponizing Java against the entire IT industry (and they are just starting with one of the companies doing well on their own innovative efforts -- Google). If this is allowed to proceed, then Apache and all those who run it (read: most of the world) will be next in the enslavement plans of Oracle, and then anyone and everyone who is not toeing the Oracle line will follow.
Oracle is also busy abusing its position of monopolistic power by altering its software updates not to run on competitor HP's Itanium servers. If ever there was a company so obviously out of control, and so obviously in need of huge anticompetitive penalties from regulators from all corners of the world, Oracle would be it. Microsoft's past sins even pale before this.
Unfortunately, the only thing that corporate predators like this seem to understand is force. Government regulators can fine them, courts can deny their lawsuits as predatory, anticompetitive, and criminal, and fine them on top of denying their claims (perhaps as much as they are asking from Google), while placing Java in the public domain to be regulated by an independent public consortium.
Since Google has been placed in this legally-vulnerable position by acting on the good-faith of Sun (now Oracle), it makes sense that Google (who has shown itself to be a good, cooperative corporate citizen) should be allowed to immediately purchase the Nortel patents in order to convince Oracle (and others) to back off and let innovation -- not litigation and dirty tricks -- govern the marketplace as it should.
The world is becoming a "bad place" due to the unfettered aggression and malevolence of organizations like Oracle, Microsoft, and Apple, and the time seems to be upon us for "the world" to take notice and puts a stop to this madness.
"Consumers" and other corporations who turn a blind eye to the unethical conduct of companies like this, and continue to feed them dollars are part of the problem. However, they can just as easily become part of the solution by selecting ethical companies to do business with or purchase products from.
Will some patent troll firm please sue Oracle now? They are just trying to crush Android. I would not be shocked if Apple was really behind it.
a bazillion jiliion dollars from Oracle because they are mightily irritating me now.
Since I just made that public, is it going to hurt their share price?
Oracle buys Sun for $5.6bil
Oracle sues Google for using Java in the first place.
Aside from every other evil thing Oracle has done with their Sun acquisition (trying to kill off MySQL and OpenOffice), this it just taking it too far.
I thought most (if not every) modern phone OS had a Java implementation.