NEWS ANALYSIS: When all is said and done in about 10 weeks, this federal case could have a profound effect on Java and Android application development -- and, in fact, all software development.
IT giants Oracle and Google on April 16 began their legal battle in federal district court in Oracle's lawsuit accusing Google of misusing its proprietary Java APIs to help create the second-most-popular mobile device operating system in the world, Android.
Jury selection began April 16 at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in downtown San Francisco. The Hon. William Alsup is serving as presiding judge in the case, which the court clerk said is expected to last up to 10 weeks.
Oracle is seeking nearly $1 billion in damages. Opening statements will begin immediately after the jury is sworn in.
Oracle is represented by two of the most feared IP law firms in the world: Boies Schiller Flexner of Armonk, N.Y., and Morrison & Foerster of Palo Alto, Calif. Google is represented by Keker & Van Nest of San Francisco.
Oracle
first filed suit in August 2010, claiming that Google illegally used seven Java application programming interfaces that Oracle owns to help build the Android operating system. Google contends that the APIs it uses cannot be copyrighted because doing so would be similar to copyrighting a technique used to perform a task. Legally, techniques are not considered intellectual property.
Oracle claims in the lawsuit that the "specifications and implementations of the APIs are not a method of operation or system."
Oracle versus Google could well become a textbook case in the software intellectual property realm by defining whether APIs are software or techniques.
Details on the Lawsuit
Oracle America, which is what Oracle renamed Sun after the acquisition in 2010, has stockpiled thousands of patents for the last 15 years but released most Java technologies to open source in 2006. The Android operating system includes Java applications running on a Java-based application
framework, with core libraries running on a Dalvik
virtual machine.
According to the lawsuit, "Google actively distributes Android (including,
without limitation, the Dalvik VM and the Android software development kit) and
promotes its use by manufacturers of products and applications."
Contrary to popular belief, it appears Google did not have a licensing
agreement with Sun for Java despite Oracle's claim that Google engineers were
aware of the patents. Google, Oracle argued, facilitated the use of Android in smartphones and
other products despite knowledge of Sun's existing patents.
"By purposefully and voluntarily distributing one or more of its
infringing products and services, Google has injured Oracle America and is thus
liable to Oracle America for infringement of the patents at issue," according
to the
suit.
Oracle is asking the U.S. District Court in Northern California
for damages and an injunction against Google from using its IP in Android.
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Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
