Why Are We Here?

Oracle’s opening slide asks: Why are we here? It cites an email from Google’s Tim Lindholm acknowledging Google’s need to get a license for Java&151;something Google never did.

When Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010, Thomas Kurian, executive vice president of product development, called Java the “crown jewel” of the acquisition.

Google needed to get to market in a hurry with Android, and Java provided just what the doctor ordered.

Java Is the Right FitGoogle looked at other options and decided that Java met its requirements for Android.

After assessing options that included Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime (CLR) and C#, Google decided to build on Java.

At the time of Google’s decision to build on Java, Sun Microsystems owned the technology along with key copyrights and patents.

As this paper trail indicates, Google acknowledges it needs to license Java.

According to this email, Google weighs the option of using Java without a license.

According to this email, Google appears poised to go its own way and gird for battle if necessary.

Google beefed up its ranks with key former Sun employees who were familiar with Java in one form or another.

According to this email, Google employees realized that though Java was open source, the licensing was such that they would still have to pay royalties.

This email suggests that Google did not want to talk openly about its use of Java.

Oracle says Google copied Java APIs and code.

Oracle says Google’s own words hurt it in this case.

Oracle says it will prove that Google willfully copied Oracle’s IP and has benefitted immensely from it.