Google To Pay $0 To Oracle In Copyright Case

An anonymous reader writes "In a hearing in the US District Court today, it was determined that Google will pay a net total of nothing for Oracle's patent claims against them. In fact, Google is given 14 days to file an application for Oracle to pay legal fees to Google (in a similar manner to how things are done for frivolous lawsuits). However, it is not quite peaches and roses for Google, as Oracle is planning on appealing the decision in the case.'"

Re:Oracle

[O('_')O_Bush]

What a slap in the face... but one Oracle desperately needed.

Re:Oracle

[Kagetsuki]

Let's hope they get a few more if they keep appealing.

Weird ruling

[sideslash]

It blows my mind that Google can use a fairly complete Java clone over Oracles objections and pay nothing, while Apple sues people's socks off for making tablets shaped like rounded rectangles, and adding bounce to their scrollable views. I'm not a fan of software patents, so not saying I'm unhappy with the result. Just weirded out at the cluelessness of the legal system.

Re:Weird ruling

[shentino]

They are not clueless.

They know damn well what they are doing.

Remember, this is the same legal environment that packed the DOJ with ex-RIAA attorneys.

A positive spin, according to expert Mueller

[bogaboga]

It's incredible that expert Mueller still puts a positive spin on the case...from predicting "triple damages" to Oracle, to what he termed as the "smoking gun Lindholm email", to the general disdain of anything not sanctioned by his cronies.

When one visits his blog, you cannot fail to see the little coverage he accords news unfavorable to those who bankroll him.

Re:Weird ruling

[bmo]

How is it a weird ruling?

It's one of the most sane rulings to come down the pike.

The other rulings that shock the conscience are the weird rulings.

--
BMO

Re:Weird ruling

[ganjadude]

thats what makes it weird. The fact that it actually makes sense.

Re:Weird ruling

[Anonymous Coward]

Remove the logos and brandnames from most laptops and I bet the same sort of lawyers won't be able to tell which laptop was made by which manufacturer.

Heck I know people who don't know the model or even brand of cars they are using. They just know the colour.

Re:Weird ruling

[fredprado]

EULA is a contract. It draws its legals base from an agreement between the parts involved. Certainly one of the parts needs to have some rights over whatever is being used by the other (be it copyright, ownership, etc), but to break the EULA you don't need to violate these rights, which was exactly what happened in PsyStar's case. PsyStar didn't copy Apple's product, they bought every one of the licenses they used. They didn't violate any copyright from Apple, but still they didn't obey the EULA they have agreed upon when they licensed the software.

So, yes, I am pretty sure the case wasn't about copyright, patents or anything remotely associated with suing someone for making a product in the same shape as yours.

Re:Oracle

[Just Some Guy]

From the article:

Murdock [the current owner] said in a statement that selling Lanai [the sixth-largest Hawaiian island] was not an impulsive decision, but he has been looking for a buyer who would have the right enthusiasm, commitment and respect for the island's residents.

...so he decided to sell to freaking Ellison?!? Yeah, that'll end well.

Re:Weird ruling

[EdIII]

Can you please STFU about the RIAA? It has nothing to do with this other than to get groupthink fucks to agree with you. These are the same types of fucks who don't know a speeding ticket from a subpoena.

Actually, it has quite a bit to do with it.

The point is that the legal system is broken, not clueless, because the people involved in the deciding part (judges, DOJ) have conflicting interests due to their associations with current/former clients.

That's why Oracle gets a much different result than Apple in the legal system. Not actual logic, ethics, or law, but who you know and where they used to work for.

Re:Weird ruling

[stephanruby]

It blows my mind that Google can use a fairly complete Java clone over Oracles objections and pay nothing...

Perhaps, the case would have been a little bit different if Sun had not open sourced Java in the first place.

Also, it wasn't against Oracle's objections. You've got to remember that Oracle didn't even own Java at the time Google cloned it. Sun owned it and Sun had no problems with Google cloning it. So it's not like Oracle can even claim it was a victim in all of this, it wasn't.

Re:Oracle

[Anonymous Coward]

Given how close that figure is to the amount that Oracle paid for Sun, I guarantee you that before Oracle bought Sun, someone doing analysis of potential take over targets shortlisted Sun based on the Java IP. I'll bet that they thought it was a slam dunk that Sun could have won an IP lawsuit against Google and that made them an ideal takeover target since they have what Oracle would call an underutilized asset in the Java IP.

Which of course is a massive miscalculation, but then again most corporate acquisitions turn out to be massive miscalculations.

Re:Weird ruling

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems to me that this time it had to do with a judge that wasn't a total f'ing tech-dunce. He did his homework, he knew the score, and he called "bullshit". No doubt the bajillion dollars worth of representation on Google's side helped.

If you wore a fancy suit and told my otherwise smart-enough grandmother that the intarwebs pirate rapists were costing you a quintillion dollars a day (with all the professionally printed charts to go with it), and the accused was a soccer mom with an 18 year old law school grad for representation, she'd probably rule in favor of the suit, too.

Re:Oracle

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I think the justification for the suit came from the fact that Google is doing it's own thing loosely based on Sun's standard Java ecosystem which is open. They were thinking that they still had the ability to sue people outside of that ecosystem for patent and copyright infringement (similar to the argument that Microsoft may be able to sue Mono users and developers at any time).

I remember the full stack approach being touted at the time of the merger and I think that was a secondary aspect of the deal. From Oracle's view they were thinking they would get the Java IP (and notably their potential patent and copyright claims wouldn't be devalued by the massive flight of engineers from Sun) and as a bonus they would get the ability to integrate Sun's products with their own (albeit, with some devaluation due to said flight of engineers). Oracle paid more than Sun's market cap for the company so they thought they were getting something that was undervalued in the stock market. I don't think they thought that Sun's hardware and OS business was undervalued since at the time they were moving towards selling support for OpenSolaris on increasingly commoditized hardware, so that leaves the IP as the main motivation for the acquisition.