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Is Google Finally Ready To Settle Oracle’s Android Lawsuit?

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About a year ago, Oracle filed a lawsuit against Google alleging that their world famous Android OS violated 7 of Oracles Java related patents. Oracle acquired these patents when they bought Sun Microsystems and wants around $2.6 billion dollars in damages for the alleged patent infringements.

Google has denied any wrong doing since day one, even going as far as saying Oracle’s damage estimates are, “Breathtaking.” Despite Google’s strong stance, it looks like Oracle may be wearing them down. According to some legal papers filed today, Google and Oracle want to put the case on hold to reexamine Oracle’s patents. By reexamining these patents Google hopes to narrow the scope of the case and according to Google’s lawyers make it, “more likely that the parties could reach an informal resolution of the matter.”

Google hasn’t publicly stated they’re looking to settle but today’s filings are the first time the big “G” has said they may be open to the idea and a sign they may be up against the ropes.

[Via PCWorld]

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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26 Comments

  1. I do like Google, but at the same time I’m sitting on a massive position on Oracle. I swear I will buy more Android devices and click more on ads if you just fork over the money. pretty please with sugar on top.

    1. How will them “forking over” the money benefit you?

      1. Higher stock prices, take a look back to when they won the lawsuit against SAP.

  2. Ugh. Oracle, Microsoft, Apple piss me off.

  3. Man stop being such a whiny b***h

  4. Chris is this true?? :O

    1. Totally bogus. I have no idea who this guy is but I rarely delete comments (you should know this from experience). Lol

      Only double posts and spam. =p

      1. The 6th comment from the top is spam. Just letting you know. These spammers are really getting out of control.

  5. I think they need to settle just to reduce the manufacturer and carrier uncertainty surrounding Android lately, because even if they are certain this can be beat in court, it’s still years of wrangling away.

    Putting this to bed also clears the decks for their legal team to assist HTC, Samsung, etc, in dealing with Apple lawsuits.

    And who knows, they might even get some ammunition to use against Apple in the form of Oracle software patents.

    1. Putting the case on hold, reexaming the patents will help in both the short and long run.

      In the short run, no royalties are being paid, so Android phones are not more expensive.

      In the long run, most if not all of these patent claims will be rejected, and therefore any royalties paid — IF ANY — will be reduced, helping keep the price of Android phones down.

      Therefore, I disagree with you. Put the lawsuit on hold. Let the USPTO take ten, no one hundred years, to reexamine all of the patents.

      1. Please remember that Android is free. There is no cost to pass on to the
        price of the handset.

        1. tell that to htc when they pay 5 bucks a phone to MS. You don’t think they pass that on to buyers?

          1. That has NOTHING to do with the Oracle lawsuit against Google. Zip, zilch,
            nada.

          2. It has everything to do with it.

            Microsoft is suing HTC over patents.

            Oracle is suing Google over patents.

        2. You obviously don’t understand about patents.

          Open Source is about copyrights.

          If you have an evil patent over something that an open source program does, you can sue for patent infringement.

          And patents have their own language that only a patent lawyer can understand.

          Claim 1.
          A method and system for a plurality of mobile devices which communicate to a server which provides them with information.

          Then the US Patent and Trademark office gets out their rubber stamp: APPROVED. (That will be $15,000 please.)

          Now, you have a patent claim that covers just anything you might want it to cover. Go crazy and sue people for millions or even billions!

  6. Hi, Glen. Chris here. I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. First off, I don’t delete comments. Not unless they’re spam and/or double posts. Disqus can act a little wonky sometimes so maybe that was the problem. Not too sure. But I do agree, Kevin’s and Quentyn’s posts are a lot better than mine which is why I only read theirs as well.

    But I do want you to know that I love G2 owners and I write emails to T-Mobile everyday asking them to update you guys to Gingerbread. So far I’ve gotten no response but I will continue to email them on your behalf. There is no justice in this world and I will not rest until the G2 receives Gingerbread.

    And I try my best to have a good relationship with our subscribers. I honestly just like people in general and Android peeps even more. I’m sorry for your “comment troubles” and I would love it if you took the time to read my articles again. I promise I’ll try my best to no longer delete your comments. …Not that I really was. o_O

    XOXO,
    Chris Chavez

    P.S. You wouldn’t happen to have a family member with the first name Adam would you? Cuz that would be awesome.

    1. Damn if Kevin, and Quentyn’s posts are better than yours. Than why do i enjoy reading yours the most Chris?

      Keep up the good work, at least the majority of us aren’t assholes like Glen.

      1. Wow great english there buddy… Might wanna review your posts before you actually send them. Anyways thanks chris I appreciate the gesture. My comment was deleted off the gingerbread for the mytouch 4g article. Hopefully tmobile gets their stuff together soon. Lol and no I’m not related to anyone named adam. For the other comments above, hope your posts really made you feel better today. If that’s what gets you off then by all means, please keep the insults coming :) ( sarcasm if your confused)

    2. +1

    3. I wouldn’t feel to special Chris, I bet he says this to all the boys. LOL
      Keep up the good work my man!

  7. I could care less about some random G2 comment. Any post about a G2 here would be off topic and deserving of deletion. Anybody else see how off-topic the comments are now?

    …I’d luv to see all of these litigious issues resolved in one way or another. There won’t be much more innovation at the head if there’s concern about the tail end of business.

  8. this article is 100% BS. Where does this come from? Google is about to crush Oracle in it’s entirety, and in doing so via this lawsuit will position them to defend HTC. 100% FUD in “google’s gonna settle”. They have done everything to show that they do not intend to settle.

    The patents have been reduced to less claims than oracle is now trying to claim in court (they don’t even cover what oracle is now claiming), and google essentially has them by the balls.

  9. I’ve been following this on Groklaw.

    What i suspect: Google wants to put the case on hold to reexamine Oracle’s patents. Oracle does NOT want to put the case on hold to reexamine the patents — just assume they are valid, don’t look too closely, hold your nose, and pay us billions of dollars please.

    Google wants to reexamine the patents, because Google has already gotten some of the claims rejected through reexamination. If anything survives the total reexamination, then that will, as Google says, help the parties reach a settlement. Google saying to Oracle: now that you have almost nothing left, we’ll pay you some token to STFU and go away now. If Oracle will accept a settlement of $10 US, then Google might even agree to keep the settlement terms confidential.

    1. Finally, Groklaw has an article about this.
      http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110721125919422

  10. Google needs to license Oracle’s patents to kill the MSFT suits. That would be a slap in the face.

    1. Oracle does not want to license the patents. They want (at least their lawsuit specifically says) to impound and destroy all Android devices. They want nothing less than the destruction of Android. They want the world to use Java ME like it should have done, as God intended everyone to do, to give Oracle their God given right to profits from something nobody wants. Then big evil Google came along and adapted Java SE with a compiler to Dalvik and built Android around it and took advantage of the fact that Java SE was open source and Linux was open source. So Oracle will just sue over patents, yeah, that’ll fix ’em.

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