Another day another Google lawsuit, although this time its an actual tech company instead of an entertainment corporation.
One one side is Google, whose Android platform represents the new world order for mobile devices while on the other side is Oracle, a company that has seen better days and now sees Android as their personal ATM machine.
Oracle has filed a lawsuit against Google, charging that its Android phone software infringes Oracle patents and copyrights related to Java, Oracle said Thursday.
“In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement,” Oracle spokeswoman Karen Tillman said in a statement.
The suit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and seeks a jury trial. (Computer World)
Oracle is apparently upset about Dalvik, which is Java compatible technology that Google built from scratch in order to avoid a licencing deal with Oracle (that is if you believe Oracle).
Dalvik is a critical piece of software for Android, used by many developers (not to mention Google as well).
While it is doubtful that this lawsuit would be quickly resolved outside of a settlement (as both companies have the funds to waste on lawyers), Oracle could sucker punch Android by going after the Android developers themselves for “violating their patents.”
Although suing developers would earn Oracle the wrath of the open source community (not to mention encourage companies to avoid using Java), it could thwart Google’s attempts at surpassing Apple’s App Store.
Hopefully Google is able to keep this litigation centered between the two tech giants, as Android is one of the few places available where developers do not have to appear before an app tribunal before they can enter the app market.
(via Android Central)
Originally posted on August 13, 2010 @ 1:23 pm