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Oracle's Java Claims Now Down To $230 Million

Posted by timothy on from the mere-pocket-change dept.

jfruh writes "Hey, remember when Oracle decided to sue Google over claims that Android violated Oracle's Java patents and copyrights? How's that working out? Not so well, it seems! Oracle has been forced to take many of its patents out of the lawsuit due to lack of evidence, and the damages in play now are down to a little less than 4 percent of Oracle's original $6.1 billion claims."

17 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Poor Larry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That won't even pay for the mooring fees, let alone an entire yacht!

  2. Abuse of process by mehrotra.akash · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the damages in play now are down to a little less than 4 percent of Oracle's original $6.1 billion claims."

    At this point, they should just declare that Oracle abused the process and grant Google victory over the remaining patents as compensation/penalty

    1. Re:Abuse of process by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Frankly, both Oracle and Google should just stop fighting immediately and dedicate their effort to reverse-engineering this judge's apparently superb garbage-collecting algorithms...

    2. Re:Abuse of process by Gideon+Wells · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'll play the Devil's Advocate card here.

      Oracle may have been overzealous by a far degree. The process this is taking is likely very stupid. Many have been thrown out. However, that doesn't mean the last few aren't legally sound under the current system/process. Maybe they aren't. The most obvious offenders were withdrawn. It is now time to test the sturdier ones to the law process.

      Who knows, maybe Oracle will loose and set a useful precedent for the Googles?

      --
      by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
    3. Re:Abuse of process by mehrotra.akash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What I dont get is how come there isnt a penalty for pursuing a lawsuit where 96% of it is thrown out?
      If Oracle had brought a similar lawsuit on a small firm instead of Google, they(the small firm) would have probably been shut down just because of the costs of the suit

    4. Re:Abuse of process by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What I dont get is how come there isnt a penalty for pursuing a lawsuit where 96% of it is thrown out?

      Are you serious? Who benefits from long drawn out frivolous lawsuits? Lawyers. Who controls the courts? Judges, who are lawyers. Who makes the laws? Politicians, who are 85% lawyers. There is no one in a position to fix the system who has any incentive to do so.
       

  3. What about the apple patents? by backslashdot · · Score: 5, Informative

    At least they aren't going the route of apple which last week, for example, patented an existing 3D eye tracking based icon display system of which there is a demo by someone else in youtube since 2009.

    Would the patent office bother to find out? I dont think so.
    Don't believe me, compare it yourself:

    http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2012/02/apple-working-on-hot-3d-eye-tracking-interface-for-gaming-iphone.html

    versus

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SImOIMcMlk

    If anyone has any connection to the US patent office they should be made aware.

    1. Re:What about the apple patents? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The patent office rubber stamps whatever comes in, and lets the courts sort it out.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    2. Re:What about the apple patents? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Apple's behavior is perfectly fair:

      After the apotheosis of Jobs, the reality distortion field was so intensified that space and time itself operate differently within the confines of his mortuary temple. Anybody within the sanctum operates as an innovator-outside-of-time. They may appear to release specific developments at specific points in the pitifully linear 'history' experienced by the unenlightened; but they(how this works is a Holy Mystery; but it is so)are simultaneously are perpetually innovating beyond time, have already invented all technologies worth inventing, and will invent all technologies worth inventing.

      Human history is, in fact, simply a mortal's-eye-view of the bestowal of gifts of innovation on various Chosen at various times. The patent office is simply recognizing this.

  4. That's the way it's done by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's the way lawyers and lawsuits work, especially in the Fantasyland of "Intellectual Property" law -- throw anything and everything at the wall, see what sticks. Rinse, repeat.

  5. Business Model by EliSowash · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is it just me, or have lawsuits become a core business model of technology megacorps?

  6. Re:who cares by Short+Circuit · · Score: 5, Interesting

    who cares

    If Oracle wins, they'll still have a victory under their belt which they could pursue manufacturers of Android devices?

    --
    tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  7. Re:The problem with outlanding numbers by Sique · · Score: 5, Informative

    In legislations, where it is "loser pays", this first reference point is important for the later outcome. Google was sued for 6.1bn, valuing the lawsuit at 6.1bn. If Oracle manages to get the 230mil awarded, this means that there were 5.87bn, which they didn't get. That would mean that Oracle has to pay 96% of the whole costs for the lawsuit.

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  8. The problem with universal languages by sandytaru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    - is that you can't get upset when someone uses them universally.

    --
    Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
  9. Re:The problem with outlanding numbers by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Funny

    but, "Billions and Billions" does have a nice ring to it.

    Only when Carl Sagan said it.

    Anyone else just can't quite seem to pull it off.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  10. Why didn't Google buy Sun? by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seriously does anyone know if they considered it at all and if they did why they chose not to? Sun and Google seems to me to have been a natural pairing. Certainly all the absolutely first rate R and D that went on at Sun would have fit into Google's culture. So why didn't they?

    1. Re:Why didn't Google buy Sun? by Glock27 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      An excellent point. Google should have, and it was a strategic mistake not to do it. Google uses Java quite a bit internally, it would have not only insulated Google from any Java hijinks, but Google would have (I believe) been a far better steward of Java than Oracle. Google still could have spun off Sun's hardware division, which had not interest for it.

      In fact, Java could finally have become what it should have to begin with, and been the premier client-side language for web development, instead of Dart.

      Oracle buying Sun was a real inflection point in IT history.

      --
      Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
      Score: -1 100% Flamebait