Oracle's Java Claims Now Down To $230 Million 84
jfruh writes "Hey, remember when Oracle decided to sue Google over claims that Android violated Oracle's Java patents and copyrights? How's that working out? Not so well, it seems! Oracle has been forced to take many of its patents out of the lawsuit due to lack of evidence, and the damages in play now are down to a little less than 4 percent of Oracle's original $6.1 billion claims."
Abuse of process (Score:5, Interesting)
the damages in play now are down to a little less than 4 percent of Oracle's original $6.1 billion claims."
At this point, they should just declare that Oracle abused the process and grant Google victory over the remaining patents as compensation/penalty
Business Model (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:who cares (Score:5, Interesting)
who cares
If Oracle wins, they'll still have a victory under their belt which they could pursue manufacturers of Android devices?
Can Android be stopped because of this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Nobody cares about the money. Can Android be stopped because of this?
Groklaw's latest: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120220133911859 [groklaw.net]
Oracle should think long and hard about whether it wants to persist on the issue of patent infringement or, for that matter, any infringement at all. Those failed settlement discussions probably look a lot more attractive to Oracle right now.
Re:Abuse of process (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll play the Devil's Advocate card here.
Oracle may have been overzealous by a far degree. The process this is taking is likely very stupid. Many have been thrown out. However, that doesn't mean the last few aren't legally sound under the current system/process. Maybe they aren't. The most obvious offenders were withdrawn. It is now time to test the sturdier ones to the law process.
Who knows, maybe Oracle will loose and set a useful precedent for the Googles?
Why didn't Google buy Sun? (Score:5, Interesting)
J2ME != JESE (Score:1, Interesting)
the sort of Java that is in Android is not J2ME at all and is more like J2SE. The licensing cost for J2SE is significantly more expensive per unit than J2ME. It could be a deal breaker for some Android phones to have to shell out such a large royalty.
Re:What about the apple patents? (Score:2, Interesting)
No, they in fact cover ideas. I don't care what the intent of the law is, the fact is that patents are written in impenetrably vague "patentese" that even trained lawyers can't decipher unless they specialize in the field. This, along with a "fence" of similar patents with the same degree of vagueness, allows one to interpret the language of one or more of these patents in pretty much any manifestation of the idea or even anything vaguely similar to the idea. That is, of course, assuming one has the money to leverage the system like this. Far as the big players and patent mills are concerned, that's a feature, not a bug.
Re:who cares (Score:4, Interesting)
"if Oracle Wins"?
You do realize that they might not even get a settlement - this is assuming the judge even lets this go to trial.
Then again, it's not like they had a case in the first place.
Re:who cares (Score:2, Interesting)
Well if those emails that Oracle got a hold of are allowed in court (sorry i can't find the link, it was on /. awhile back so maybe someone can find it?) where one of the employees basically said "We'll see how much they want for Java and if the price is to high we'll just make our own version" then they are sunk, the only question is how much they are gonna have to pay. How long before corps learn that email is a BAD idea with a capital B? Call 'em on the damned phone already, quit leaving a paper trail the size of Kansas that can be used against you in court! Hell even Cheney was smart enough to have the White house emails sent through the RNC who just "oopsie" made them all go away on a regular basis.
Personally I don't see why everyone is cheering Google in this except for "All go to hell except cave 76!" perception bubbles. I mean for the love of Pete its MSJava all over again! BOTH companies made their own version of Java which was incompatible with Java proper and BOTH companies have aggressively pushed their incompatible Java, so what's the diff? Because Google has some lame ass 'Do no evil" motto that means that doing the exact same shit MSFT did is okay now? it wasn't okay when MSFT did it and its not okay now. If Google wanted to use Java (which the emails said clearly they did) then they should have licensed it and then stuck to the standards. hell if anything I'd argue in this case they are worse than MSFT because at least MSFT bought a license before they tried to fuck Java. Either stick to the standards, pay your licenses, or roll your own. Its not like Google can't afford to roll their own language or buy one right?