The Oracle-Google legal battle over Java/Android seems close to an end, as the jury are reportedly very close to a verdict on the copyright phase of the trial, but are still deadlocked on one question. The copyright verdict has been delayed until Monday, as presiding Judge William Alsup told the jury to take the weekend off and return Monday to resolve the remaining question.
The Oracle-Google legal battle is likely one of the most followed technology lawsuits in history. The verdict will put an end to the battle between the two tech giants over the use of Java in the popular Android operating system. Oracle sued Google in mid-2010 for copyright and patent infringement, alleging $6.1 billion in damage. Google denied any wrongdoing and filed patent invalidation requests with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Several of the Oracle patents were invalidated following Google's requests. As the case progressed, the amount in damages has also decreased.
Neither Oracle nor Google budged on their position, so the trial finally went to court on April 16, 2012. The proceedings closed on April 27, after days of courtroom hearings with lawyers and various witnesses. The jury started deliberating on Monday, April 30. On Thursday, May 3, the jury sent the eighth note, asking what would happen if the members of the jury could not reach a unanimous agreement on the questions on the verdict form. Judge Alsup told them to continue deliberating on Friday.
Jury Deadlocked on One Question
The jury seemed closer to a verdict on Friday, May 4, saying they had come to a unanimous decision on three of the four questions. They remained, however, at an "impasse" over that one question. Judge Alsup again sent them home, asking them to return Monday to continue discussing that one question. "Since there is hope of reaching that question, we should take advantage of that hope," said Alsup, as quoted by Wired.
The four questions the Judge posed to the jury followed two weeks of testimony, examination and cross-examination during the trial. The first question, considered the most important, asks whether Oracle has "proven that Google has infringed the overall structure, sequence and organization of copyrighted works." Part B of the question asked, if Google did infringe, whether its infringement was covered by "fair use," which permits copying under certain circumstances. The following question is similar, but revolves around the issue of documentation. The third question asked whether code in certain files was copied and, if so, whether it was "de minimis," i.e. small enough not to be considered infringement. The fourth question asked whether Sun's public statements indicating it supported the development of Android were enough to make Google believe it did not need a license for Java. The Judge asked the jury if the question they remained deadlocked on was among the first three, and the foreman said it was.
Patent Phase
Meanwhile, Oracle and Google attorneys have already started to focus on the next phase of the trial - the patent phase. Oracle lawyers, led by Marc Jacobs, want to exclude former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz from testimony in the patent phase. Schwartz has already testified in favor of Google at the trial, arguing that the search giant had the right to use parts of the Java API as long as the final product was not named Java.
Both Oracle and Google legal teams were asked to provide the judge with previous trial literature on copyright in regards to software, particularly regarding last week's European court ruling in a case revolving SAS. The court had ruled that software and APIs could not be copyrighted.
