Reuters: Technology News: Google did not infringe Oracle patents: jury

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Google did not infringe Oracle patents: jury May 23rd 2012, 19:03 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Facebook settles lawsuit over "Sponsored Stories" 12:54am EDT Apple, Samsung CEOs in U.S. court talks on patents Mon, May 21 2012 Apple, Samsung CEOs set for court talks Sun, May 20 2012 Historic Facebook debut falls short of expectations Fri, May 18 2012 Appeals court revives POM lawsuit versus Coca-Cola Thu, May 17 2012 Analysis & Opinion SCOTUS to Federal Circuit: Think harder about what's patentable Should artists get royalties on resales? California judge says no Related Topics World » Tech » Media » People visit Google's stand at the National Retail Federation Annual Convention and Expo in New York January 16, 2012. Credit: Reuters/ Kena Betancur By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO | Wed May 23, 2012 3:03pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc's Android mobile platform has not infringed Oracle Corp's patents, a California jury decided in a high-stakes trial fought by the two Silicon Valley giants over smartphone technology. Because the same jury could not unanimously agree on the copyright allegations earlier in the case, the latest verdict on patents effectively puts an indefinite hold on Oracle's quest for damages. The verdict was delivered on Wednesday in a San Francisco federal court, and confirmed by a Google spokesman. An Oracle attorney declined to comment on the decision. The jury found earlier that Oracle had proven copyright infringement for parts of Java. But the jury could not unanimously agree on whether Google could fairly use that material. Oracle sued Google in August 2010, saying Android - the world's most used mobile software - infringed on its intellectual property rights to the Java programming language. Google says it does not violate Oracle's patents and that Oracle cannot copyright certain parts of Java, an "open-source" or publicly available software language. While Oracle is seeking about $1 billion in copyright damages, the patent damages in play are much lower. Before trial, Google offered to pay Oracle roughly $2.8 million in damages on the two patents remaining in the case, covering the period through 2011, according to a filing made jointly by the companies. For future damages, Google proposed paying Oracle 0.5 percent of Android revenue on one patent until it expires this December and 0.015 percent on a second patent until it expires in April 2018. Oracle rejected the settlement offer. During trial, U.S. District Judge William Alsup revealed that Android generated roughly $97.7 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2010. Without a finding against Google on that fair use question, Oracle cannot recover damages on the bulk of its copyright claims. And Alsup has not yet decided on several legal issues that could determine how a potential retrial on copyright would unfold. Shares in Oracle stood largely unchanged at mid-afternoon at $26.41. Google stock was up 0.7 percent at $604.81. The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Oracle America, Inc v. Google Inc, 10-3561. (Reporting By Dan Levine; Editing by Gary Hill and Richard Chang) Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (1) Patents are pulling the world down. It's not spurring innovation. It's spurring investment in rehashing old stuff, while holding the new methods hostage to the building blocks of the old. May 23, 2012 2:55pm EDT  --  Report as abuse See All Comments » Add Your Comment

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