A federal jury in May found that Google did not
infringe on Oracle patents in building its Android mobile operating system,
following a patent infringement suit filed by by Oracle in 2010. In the
lawsuit, Oracle had argued that in creating the Dalvik virtual machine (the
software platform that runs Java applications on Android), the search giant
knowingly lifted intellectual property involving two Java-related patents that
Oracle acquired with its purchase of Sun Microsystems.
The two patents (U.S. Patents 6,061,520
and RE38,104,
aka ’520 and ’104) cover ways of accelerating the software compilation process,
i.e. the process of turning raw code into executable applications.
Oracle made six different claims
of infringement involving the ’104 patent and two claims related to the ’520
patent, and the jury unanimously dismissed all the claims. “Today’s jury
verdict that Android does not infringe Oracle’s patents was a victory not just
for Google but the entire Android ecosystem,” read a statement from Google.
Oracle indicated it will continue
to push its case. “Oracle presented overwhelming evidence at trial that Google
knew it would fragment and damage Java,” read a statement from the company. “We
plan to continue to defend and uphold Java’s core write once run anywhere
principle and ensure it is protected for the nine million Java developers and
the community that depend on Java compatibility.”
The verdict concluded the “patent
phase” of the trial. Previously, the jury returned a partial decision on
Oracle’s claims of copyright infringement, deciding that Google had infringed in
some cases but failing to reach a verdict on the biggest issue in the case:
whether or not Google had infringed in cloning 37 Java APIs, or applications
programming interfaces.
Patent ’104 — which describes a
“method and apparatus for resolving data references in generated code” — was
the more important of the two patents at issue. Oracle’s case revolved around
the term “symbolic reference” and how Dalvik uses a piece of software called a
dx tool to convert Java programming code into executable software, known as
.dex files.
The patent details a means of
compiling software code in which data is tagged with “symbolic references”
rather than numeric memory locations. Oracle argued that in compiling code,
Dalvik uses symbolic references. Google said it does not.
The ’520 patent, which received
far less attention during the trial, describes a “method and system for
performing static initialization.” In short, it covers a way of consolidating
classes of files so that virtual machines can execute less code than they
otherwise would. Oracle claimed that Google uses simulated execution with
Dalvik, while Google said it doesn’t simulate but merely parses files.
At the conclusion of the verdict,
Judge Alsup thanked the jury for its time, saying this was the longest civil
trial he’d seen in his 13 years on the bench. The trial started on Apr. 16.
Then he dismissed the 10 remaining jurors from the case.
Though the jury has been
dismissed, the core issue in the trial is still undecided. Judge William Alsup
will rule himself on whether the Java APIs are subject to copyright, and he
expects to do so sometime next week.
[Source: wired.com]
In other news, Google has
embarked on a massive patent acquisition drive, the biggest acquisitions being
Java language patents. These acquisitions are in line with the remarkable
success that the Android operating system has delivered to the company, as well
as a move to defuse Oracle’s massive Java infringement suit against Google and
its Android OS.
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