Google and Oracle Dust Up: A Googley Patent Move
February 23, 2011
After several months with nary a shot fired, Google is finally resigned to march to Oracle’s battlefield. Florian Meuller of the FOSS Patents blog recently updated his ongoing coverage on the lawsuit twixt the search titans. The latest development is Google’s request for reexamination of at least five of seven Oracle asserted patents; in addition, Google ‘would like’ the charges of copyright violations removed from the case.
Google has yet to initiate any legal retaliation, a show that in the time passed since the initial announcement of grievances, the company likely has not found any patents of its own to leverage against Oracle. Couple this with what appears to be a strategy to tackle the copyright issue quickly. Meuller explains that “The patent part of the lawsuit is clearly the largest part of Google’s problem. I guess what really has Google concerned about the copyright part of the case is that Google wouldn’t want to be in a situation where it’s found to infringe patents as well as copyrights and the question of damages for willful patent infringement comes up. In that context, the copyright part would really hurt the credibility of Google’s claims that it never intended to infringe the patents-in-suit.”
What the facts suggest is that Google is breaking a sweat and thus developing a strategy to protect its Android revenues. The two search industry giants certainly have no shortages of lawyers or resources, indicating there may be a long road lined with several melees ahead. Considering the contenders are long time market rivals, it will be interesting to watch the courtroom clash unfold regardless of the eventual victor due to the impact this ruling will wield (is this Oracle vs. Google or Oracle vs. open source?). I think it prudent at this juncture to recall the wise and relevant words of Bertrand Russell: “War does not determine who is right — only who is left”.
The only problem with this tactic is that the judge disallowed it.
Sarah Rogers, February 23, 2011
Freebie
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
