San Francisco: Oracle Corp’s claim that Google violated several of its patents and copyrights goes to trial in a San Francisco court on Monday morning, in which both companies’ chief executives are set to take the stand.
The trial before U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco is expected to last eight weeks. Alsup had told both companies last month that if they intended to settle the case, they should do it by April 13 at noon, in order to save potential jurors a trip to the courthouse. That deadline passed on Friday without any announcements.
Both Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Google CEO Larry Page are listed on Oracle’s list of potential witnesses. Oracle said in a court filing on Sunday that it anticipated Ellison and Page would be among its first witnesses.
Oracle sued Google in August 2010 over seven patents and copyright claims for the Java programming language, which Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems. According to Oracle, Google’s Android operating system tramples on its intellectual property rights to Java.
Google says it doesn’t violate Oracle’s patents, and that Oracle cannot copyright certain parts of Java.
Early on, damages estimates ran as high as $6.1 billion. But Google has narrowed Oracle’s claims so that only two patents remain, reducing the possible damages that could be awarded. Oracle is seeking roughly $1 billion in copyright damages.
The trial will be divided into three phases: copyright liability, patent claims and damages. Page could also testify about revenue and profit projections for Android, including advertising revenue, the witness list said.
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Oracle America, Inc v. Google Inc, 10-3561.
Java was first released in 1995 and allows software to be run across computer platforms, rather than just being limited to one type of operating system.
Oracle – a business hardware and software provider – inherited the intellectual properties when it took over Java’s original developer, Sun Microsystems, in 2009.
The language is used by many business applications as well as other software, such as the video game Minecraft, on PCs.
Oracle argues that by using its intellectual property, and then giving Android away for free, Google undermined the possibility of it licensing Java to mobile phone makers.
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