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Christopher Dawson
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Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie

By | August 13, 2010, 3:00am PDT

In what was a surprising turn of events for many in the tech community, Oracle filed a formal complaint of patent infringement against Google, demanding a jury trial and unspecified damages over the use of Java in their Android platform. So why now? Can they win? And what does it mean for Google and Java developers at large if they do?

It’s one thing to sue small fish into oblivion. Anyone remember Psystar? They went up against Apple selling dubiously-licensed Mac clones. They don’t sell Mac clones anymore. Big surprise.

Also see:

It’s another thing when a small fish sues a big fish. Big fish tend to have deep pockets that can, to the massive financial benefit of said small fish, make a lawsuit go away very quickly. Settlements, acquisitions, and licensing deals can all prove quite lucrative for the small fish with relatively small investments by the big fish, especially if the small fish actually has the intellectual property rights it brings to a court.

In both of these scenarios, there are serious financial incentives to file IP-related lawsuits. When a big fish sues a bigger fish over intellectual property rights that aren’t clearcut, there has to be a bigger picture, a corporate strategy that makes the financial and PR risks worth the potential gain. In this case, it’s mobile computing which, in case you haven’t noticed, is the future of both consumer and, in many ways, enterprise computing. Yeah, I’d say there’s an incentive here.

See related coverage:

Next: So just how big is that incentive? »

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Topics

Google Inc., Oracle Corp., Mobile, Christopher Dawson

Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.

Disclosure

Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.). He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change. He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have). Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others. Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair. Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards. Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap. Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff. Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable. Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.

Biography

Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music. He escaped to the right coast in the early 90's and received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling. This focus led him to several positions at Johns Hopkins, a couple-year stint in private industry, teaching high school math and technology, and 2 years as the technology director for his local school district. Most recently, he started his own consulting business and is now the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network provider. He lives with his wife, five kids (yes, 5), 2 dogs, and a hateful cat in a small town in north-central Massachusetts. Although he is no longer teaching, his roles with WizIQ and ZDNet allow him to continue helping students and teachers add value to education with technology rather than merely adding to the bottom line.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
davidstr9 16th Aug 2010
@PacoBell You are right, you cannot patent "language," but can you patent an invented language?
DavidStr
View in thread
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Oracle is just being Oracle
ron.nolte@... 13th Aug 2010
Oracle has purchased a number of companies (Hyperion, Peoplesoft, Seibel, BEA Systems......) they dont rest until they have picked all the meat from the bones. This wont be the last issue related to legacy Sun. OpenOffice ring a bell?
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openoffice? there's no money there...
shryko 13th Aug 2010
@ron.nolte@...

so, no, it doesn't ring a bell. The bell was sold to sponsor a patch. No more bell to ring. :P

if there is $0 available, don't try to go to court over it.
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What about all other Linux Distros?
cornpie 13th Aug 2010
Basically, Android is a Linux distribution for mobile devices. If Oracle can win this or at least extort a licensing deal from Google, doesn't that set a precedent to go after Linux in general?
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Not really.
Bruizer 13th Aug 2010
@cornpie

Look at the patents involved. They seam to be more about specific applications used within the Android/Java framework than Java itself.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
i2fun@... 13th Aug 2010
@Bruizer Android uses Dalvik VM. A VM now designed well over 3 yrs ago and Sun never gave notice or came after them for the tech. Mainly because they couldn't. Google isn't using any of Sun (Oracle's) tech. So how in the World does Oracle think without Sun having given notice, that they can retroactively cut back in time to some supposed violation is way beyond me.

First of all the Dalvik VM is Registry based an it can multi-task contrary to Java runtime environment. They aren't even calling it Java and it does not use any Sun Java bitecode. They program in Java language which is not illegal. Any decent court and jury will see right through this scam with Oracle shooting themselves in the foot multiple times and apparently the idiots running don't feel the pain yet. You can't suddenly claim something as violating a patent, when Android has been in the works since 2003 and uses it's own bytecode in it's own VM!

Oracle is run by a bunch of morons it appears! haha.... especially if they think juries are that stupid! Stupid yes..... but moronic enough to not figure out this bunch of poppycock from a bunch of greedy losers? NO!!! lol

http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html

Plus the morons killed OpenSolaris, all in 1 day. How long before the end of OpenOffice.org, VirtualBox, and MySQL. Why don't they just cut their own throats while they're at it? Seriouly the morons running Oracle need to get their big fat bald heads examined. It's one helluva company that severely lacks any intelligent beings whatsoever! haha.... I'll love seeing them go down the pipe!!!

This why in a nutshell it'll be a cold day in hell when we won't see these Oracle Bozos getting kicked off the bus before it even gets rolling! grin

http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/110/

Google is very well prepared for this one and have been from the start over 5yrs ago when they bought Android in 2005!
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
Loverock Davidson 13th Aug 2010
@cornpie
We can only hope so.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
marcusantoniouslee1@... 13th Aug 2010
@cornpie That's exactly what I thought. How does one sue for intellectual infringement on open source software which allows commercial use based on keeping the code base open?
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
stevek@... 13th Aug 2010
@marcusantoniouslee1@... based on recent history it appears that Sun and Oracle have a thriving cottage industry suing companies that are more innovative and successful...
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The arguement ...
mwagner@... 13th Aug 2010
@cornpie ... would be that Google had no right to incorporate Java code into the GPL because Java is protected by a non-GPL license. It is a requirement of GPL that no proprietary code may be incorporated into GPL code which would not make it completely free and open source.

The question for the courst to determine is whether or not Java is open source or proprietary. Could be interesting.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
prof.ebral Updated - 13th Aug 2010
@mwagner@... Aha! That makes sense. Google took 'open source' too far.

That's really bad if Oracle wants to try and force Java back into the license. They might change it in such a way it is wrecked. What they should do is make Google pay for the GPL licensing and then release it with a GPL license option, like Nokia is doing with Qt
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...is moot.
pwatson 13th Aug 2010
@mwagner@... If, as reported, Google's language implementation and included code were done in a "cleanroom" method, then Google has made no use of Oracle property.

This is similar to the "cleanroom" BIOS implementations that were done for personal computers.
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And, if Oracle *doesn't* sue...
fairportfan 13th Aug 2010
@mwagner@...

... and allows Java to be folded into GPL distros, the they might actually lose their patents.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
drobinow 14th Aug 2010
@mwagner@... I'm afraid this is really nonsense. Oracle has no standing to sue over GPL violations. They don't own any GPL code in question. Also, you're talking copyright. This suit is about patents.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
Jeremy-UK 13th Aug 2010
@cornpie Err, No. Google have created an incompatible version of Java. Essentially Java is two things, firstly it is a programming language, secondly it is a runtime environment for Java bytecodes (what Java Language programs compile to). What Google did was create Dalvik, a system that is like Java, but incompatible with it. Trouble is, Google have used "Java Language" for Dalvik. That is you write in "Java Language" and it compiles to a bytestream that runs in the Dalvik VM.

I actually think it's pretty open and shut, Google are "guilty" - while I don't see the need for the lawsuit and I think it would have been better for everyone if Oracle hadn't done this, I think legally they have a point. I can see there is merit in Oracle's position - if Google jumped Dalvik out of Android and onto the desktop (and why couldn't they?) then it would be a serious threat to Java...

But this has nothing to do with Linux per se.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
PacoBell 13th Aug 2010
@Jeremy-UK I'm pretty sure you can't patent speech, which is just another word for "language". Maybe the interpreter, but certainly not the communication.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
Dr. John 13th Aug 2010
@Jeremy-UK

ummm....No. That doesn't work. It's the post-compilation that is the program. The developer's language, pre-compilation means nothing. There are simply too many developers languages that are far too similar in their usage to make your argument viable. It's what happens to the language after it runs through the compiler that counts. If the compiler is different, if the end result code is incompatible, it's a moot point and not actionable.

There's got to be something else in play here. Either that, or Larry's been sniffing the glue fumes from his yacht building again.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
dave@... 13th Aug 2010
@Jeremy-UK Thing is, this can only be about patents -- Google did a new implementation of Java/Dalvik, so there is no question about any copyright infringement. So it's whatever software patents Sun originally filed on Java that still apply. Which, particularly given the age of Java, might be pretty shakey.

But it's also quite likely that, with success here, Oracle would go after other non-Sun implementations of Java. Unless of course they've been tolerating this sort of thing for so long, the patents are judged abandoned. You can't just forget to enforce a patent for 10 years, wait for violators to stack up, then suddenly enforce it. Submarining a patent is illegal, and usually gets it invalidated.

And of course, Google isn't really selling Android, they're giving it away. Sure, they do sell some of their main apps to OEMs. So there's an intereesting Open Source element here, too... where are the damaged?
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
green alien 16th Aug 2010
@Jeremy-UK
You are just right - the people here make a lot of mistakes. Sun Tried for years to build a line of dialog with Google about this, with no answer. Oracle is just right about this, they have no options.

This sue has nothing related to Java development, Linux, or OpenOffice.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
hito_kiri 15th Aug 2010
@cornpie No. Linux itself is the Linux kernel. Android, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Red Hat, etc... are all projects based on the kernel. And in the case of Android, it has a customized kernel (makes no sense to use the full kernel with all its functionality for servers and desktops, and all the drivers for said hardware, and backwards compatibility for legacy hardware when it is meant to run on new age mobile devices) and that kernel is not part of the official Linux kernel. Not only that but the Dalvik environment is a completely separate package. And the kernel itself is written in C, not Java, so no hope there for all the Linux haters hoping for some odd reason that something will come along to destroy this devil OS that has hurt them and their families so bad...
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Oracle is NOT suing Java developers
interlocutor Updated - 13th Aug 2010
The article says "In fact, if Google can be a target, then any number of Java developers can potentially find themselves in Oracles crosshairs." That's nonsense. Google is not a "Java Developer". Google created its own flavor of Java, ignoring Sun's intellectual property rights. Sun was too weak to sue Google at that time. Ordinary Java developers are not creating their own flavor of Java -- they are merely developing applications using Java. There is a difference. It is amazing that a ZDNet reporter doesn't understand the difference.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
rbethell 13th Aug 2010
@interlocutor This is an almost entirely nonsensical point. Java was GPLed. As such, how can there be any meaningful intellectual property rights, given that Android is itself released under a compatible license?
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GPL won't help Google
interlocutor 13th Aug 2010
@rbethell Does Dalvik source code say that the copyright owner is Sun (or Oracle)? If no then the GPL doesn't come into the picture because Google didn't use the GPL'd source code released by Sun.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
Linux Geek 13th Aug 2010
@rbethell
Friday, 13th 2010...a day that will live in infamy!
I think M$ is uncorking the champagne over this GPL v3 debacle over java.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
marcusantoniouslee1@... 13th Aug 2010
@rbethell - Oracle would have to be saying it's illegal to develop a flavor of JAVA and so Apache should be in their sights for Harmony. Hopefully Oracle will get a jury of their technical peers and not a bunch of people easily swayed by emotional arguments. If Wikipedia is correct, Dalvik is based on Apache Harmony http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Harmony
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
ItsTheBottomLine 13th Aug 2010
@Linux (twink) Geek: ...me thinks you have a weee bit of an issue. MS was not mentioned, stay focused here son - need your medicine?
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
marcusantoniouslee1@... 13th Aug 2010
@interlocutor - I just downloaded the Android SDK and had to have the Sun/Oracle SDK/runtime on my system. There was no Google version of JAVA to grab. Is it something to do with an interpreter in Android?
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
snotraks 13th Aug 2010
"Oracle is NOT suing Java developers" ... yet.

Also, be wary if you use MySQL ... after Oracle has finished extorting Google with their imaginary property (i.e. software patents), they may then show up at your door claiming that they own your data.

Write your congressional representative and demand USPTO reform!
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This Is The Only Way This Megalomaniac Will Make Money Off Mobile Computing
cyberslammer 13th Aug 2010
Can't develop or come up with anything else productive..Oracle Collaboration Suite was a complete joke and waste of time for my organization, we dropped it after two months and went back to Exchange.
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Dalvik is the target, not the use of Java
slater99 13th Aug 2010
The coverage here and in the WSJ implies that Oracle is after Google for using Java, and thus everyone in the world that uses Java is at risk. A little bit of homework by the authors would have revealed that the issue in question is most likely the Dalvik virtual machine used in Android, used by Google to bypass the use of Java ME. The reason for that decision is that Sun's open source license for JME does not have the exceptions that Java SE has for user code not being forced to be opened also. See this article from 2007 that explains it: http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/110/

So, nothing in Android follows the Java GPL. Google claims that Dalvik is fully a clean room implementation that legally does not infringe on Java. Oracle is now claiming otherwise. This was predicted back in 2007, only that Sun did not have the resources to sue at the time.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
MisterMiester Updated - 13th Aug 2010
@slater99

Sun, before being acquired by Oracle, issued a patent grant that allows for a clean room version of the Java specification to be implemented:

http://perens.com/blog/d/2010/8/13/32/

So the idea that somehow Google blatantly and willfully violated Sun's IP is really far fetched since the license specifically allows for this.

Now if Google violated the stipulations of the license that's a different story. Or course this will surface during the court proceedings if it goes to trial.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
slater99 13th Aug 2010
@MisterMiester That patent grant specifically applies to the Standard Edition, and the issue here is related to the Mobile Edition. The patent grant also specifies that any implementation cannot be a subset or superset, and Dalvik is not a faithful implementation of Java specs.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
MisterMiester Updated - 14th Aug 2010
@slater99

"That patent grant specifically applies to the Standard Edition, and the issue here is related to the Mobile Edition."

No the issue is with Java SE and the "field of use" restrictions. Are these restrictions applicable since Dalvik does not, according to your source, use "Java bytecode or the Java virtual machine to execute it on the phone".

"The patent grant also specifies that any implementation cannot be a subset or superset, and Dalvik is not a faithful implementation of Java specs."

This is speculative as best. Your own source clearly states that "Androids implementation of the Java SE class library is, indeed, Apache Harmony's".

So let's see, Android doesn't use Java bytecode or the Java VM and uses Apache Harmony's Java SE class libraries. Did you even read the source material you posted?
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
slater99 14th Aug 2010
@MisterMiester Sure I read it...I am not sure it is gospel, but it does state that "Android doesn't claim to be compatible" and that Android "could very well claim that their subset/superset is an innovation." It is not "speculative" that Dalvik is not a faithful implementation of either Java SE or Java ME. If you like sources, here is another one:

http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/11/android-java

I have no idea whether Google or Oracle is right on this one. But it is clear that the patent grant does not apply to Dalvik since it does not include all the required packages (e.g. AWT) and adds some of its own.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
dave@... 13th Aug 2010
@slater99 the article says "patent infringement", not "copyright infringement". So Oracle is not claiming Google appropriated a single line of code. They're claiming software patents on some aspect(s) of Java. I have not read the patents, but I would be shocked if they stand up against prior art ... we humans have been making compilers and interpreters a long, long time. But of course, nothing before the mid-80s could have been patented. And the PTO back then had no software engineers, and basically ignored obvious prior art.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
slater99 14th Aug 2010
@dave@... The actual Oracle complaint (short read, actually) refers to both patent and copyright infringement. I am not making any points as to the validity of the complaint. All I am saying is that this is not about Oracle going after Google simply for using Java, but for creating a new Java-like implementation that they claim infringes on their patents.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
hayneiii@... 13th Aug 2010
It is really simple. Google has no respect for property rights. Android steals Java patents, not paying for them. Companies using those patents make lot of money. Oracle owns patents and wants to be paid.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
garciare 13th Aug 2010
@hayneiii@...

"don't be evil?" isn't that someone's motto?
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
shtromer Updated - 13th Aug 2010
@garciare
My warning lights flash whenever someone tells me what great things they will do, or how ethical they intend to be. If it's an organisation or a company, my circuits tend to overload. Google's China adventure was the first (to me) visible departure. More recently, the information gathering. So maybe we should adopt the motto "don't feign surprise"
It's a different matter if someone is talking about a verifiable track record, of course.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
Yam Digger 13th Aug 2010
@hayneiii@...
While I'm not the type of person to drink the Corporate Koolaid, I tend to doubt that a company of googles size and reputation is going be foot-loose with other people's patents. Put aside that it's not ethical, it just doesn't make business sense; and I give people like Brin, Page, and Schmidt more credit than that. Besides, how are you so sure they intentionally violated Oracle's patents? Do you work as a developer for Google?
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Thanks!
G-Systems 13th Aug 2010
@Yam Digger

@Yam Digger

Truly, there are so many bloghouse lawyers in here, it's a wonder that this is even going to trial.

I think that it's a pretty simple scenario.

If in the legalese of the license that Google could not modify Java to its on resource, then Google infringed the agreement, and Oracle/Sun is due their reparations...

If it is not the case, then we're back to our regularly scheduled programs...

Regardless, I think this raises a bigger issue: I should be a lawyer!

lol

This is a suspenseful story, but not particularly engrossing since Android will still be around and, if anything, it will be made better by the challenges presented in a loss for Google...

Happy Posting!!
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
jorjitop 13th Aug 2010
@Yam Digger
Larry and Sergey might well have started as innocents, but Eric Schmidt is something else again. He is there to run a business and make money. "Do no evil" has long gone by the wayside.
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Happier with Sun
rtrujillo@... 13th Aug 2010
Now that Oracle took over, they are starting to behave like Caldera. As a Sys Admin, I won't be pushing Oracle products anymore. In the long run, Oracle will end up losing lots of clients.
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SCO all over again!
bob@... 13th Aug 2010
Attorneys on crack?????
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
garciare 13th Aug 2010
@bob@...

wink these days it's not the IT pros that are winning, it's the lawyers. Agree bob.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
garciare 13th Aug 2010
you go girl
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Google should fork Java
RamonFHerrera 13th Aug 2010
Google should fork Java, and tell Oracle to go perform self-intercourse.

Did Oracle at least have the decency to get some feedback from the Java developers?

I read that IBM had spent more resources on Java than Sun itself.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
psychographer 13th Aug 2010
@RamonFHerrera

No, but they did make more money from it.
happy
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Hostile takeover
bigdaddyellison Updated - 13th Aug 2010
Google should do a hostile takeover of Oracle and get it over with. Welcome to capitalism. Software patents should have a time limit and should be allowed only when they make sense. Technically Google's CEO led the team that created java and ironically many of the actual creators now work at Google, so actually the brains that created it are being sued by the company that couldn't successfully use it because the company they work for now is more innovative.
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
philgr99 13th Aug 2010
@bigdaddyellison "make sense" to whom? Just because the group you belong to doesn't like the patent doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. Companies should be able to protect and exploit the investments they made or innovation will decline. And I'd argue Oracle are being very innovative - buying Sun and pursuing this business strategy took some imagination - not admirable, but innovative;-)
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
I am Gorby 14th Aug 2010
@philgr99 SOP for Oracle. Oracle have always been on the far right of the capitalistic culture.
Take no prisoners! Do whatever it takes! Litigate! Threaten...
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RE: Oracle sues Google: Looking for a piece of the mobile pie
davidstr9 16th Aug 2010
@PacoBell You are right, you cannot patent "language," but can you patent an invented language?
DavidStr

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