The Oracle-Google lawsuit is turning into a rather unrewarding venture from Oracle’s perspective now that the jury has found Google did not infringe on Oracle’s Java patents when building Android. This follows the earlier mixed verdict on the API copyright issue whereby the jury ruled that Google had infringed copyright on nine lines of code but could not decide whether this was within fair use boundaries or not (see here). Judge Alsup is still pondering that. Meanwhile Google has filed for a mistrial on the API ruling on the grounds that the law does not allow for an infringement decision if the fair use aspect is not answered.
This is a legal wrangle so almost anything could happen but the chances of Oracle coming out ahead look increasingly unlikely. With the patent ruling against it, there is no patent damages issue to be settled. That’s bad for Oracle, good for Google but it also means we won’t get to see how much money Google makes from Android. Apple in particular would have found that a valuable insight as would Microsoft given its own mobile ambitions. It is unlikely Oracle would move to close Android down but at the least it would want to a chunk of the Android’s revenue stream via a license agreement. The broader picture is that it is good for the Android ecosystem and software and IT services suppliers for whom the rise of mobile devices represents new business opportunities as businesses look to extend their enterprise software into the mobile environment. But this lawsuit is not over yet.