Must Read: No niche for iPad: Why I returned mine

Topic: Software Development

Oracle, Google scrap over Android IP damages

Summary: Oracle claims it should be awarded $2.6 billion for Google Android's alleged infringement of its intellectual property. Google says the figure is inflated and the methodology "unreliable."

Andrew Nusca

By for Between the Lines |

In the latest chapter of the ongoing legal saga between Oracle and Google, Oracle claims it should be awarded $2.6 billion for Google's alleged infringement of its intellectual property with regard to the Android mobile operating system.

An expert hired by Oracle, Boston University finance professor Iain Cockburn, calculated the figure as part of a court filing on Tuesday, Marketwatch reports. Previous filings did not indicate just how many "billions" of dollars Oracle sought in damages.

The filing was about as he-said, she-said as it gets:

Google falsely claims that Prof. Cockburn concludes that Oracle is owed anywhere from $1.4 to $6.1 billion in damages. He does not. His opinion is that the total damages that should be awarded to Oracle is $2.6 billion.

Google, of course, rejects Cockburn's estimate as "inappropriate," calling into question the methodology for calculating the figure and calling the figure inflated.

It's the latest round in a long legal battle in which Oracle says Google is infringing on the patents and copyrights within its Sun portfolio, which it acquired last year. The Android ecosystem has been under fire from several companies, including Apple, who attest that both software and hardware too easily mimic patents held by rival tech companies.

Topics: Software Development, CXO, Smartphones, Oracle, Open Source, Mobility, Mobile OS, Hardware, Google, IT Employment

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Talkback

6 comments
Log in or register to join the discussion

  • Oracle must drop the lawsuit immediately

    and apologise for its claims that Google did anything inappropriate relative to Java or Sun's patents.
    Otherwise the people will rise and shun Oracle in the same shameful corner with M$ and other patent trolls.
    Android is a clean room implementation that does not infringe any IP.
    Since groklaw has shown that Oracle case is bogus and crumbling, it's not late for Lary Eli$$on to save his face in the eyes of the people.
    Linux Geek
    Reply Vote

    • Evil Company VS Evil Company.

      @Linux Geek

      Should be fun to watch. One company is a once tech giant turned legal department and the other is a fiend of FOSS by linking mis-appropriated IP to their high profit ad engines.
      Bruizer
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Oracle, Google scrap over Android IP damages

    Sorry Oracle, but you are fast becoming the NTP of the DB world, period.
    rikasa
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Oracle, Google scrap over Android IP damages

    Dear Larry Ellison

    How are things between you ans Steve Ballmer?
    Lord_of_the_Singhs
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Oracle, Google scrap over Android IP damages

      @Lord_of_the_Singhs

      Not really close... Those two don't like eachother. But Ellison <3 Jobs.
      snoop0x7b
      Reply Vote

  • Is JAVA Open Source???

    I seem to remember that Sun released Java to open source (GNU General Public License) in 2006 or 2007. There were some parts that were proprietary to 3rd parties, and could not be released. An OSS group replaced the missing functionality (not the code) at a later time. So what exactly does Oracle think it bought as proprietary code?
    Sagax-
    Reply Vote
CNET Join | Log In | Privacy | Cookies Close