Judge Suspects Android’s Infringement Was Willful

By Maureen O'Gara	Article Rating:
July 14, 2011 08:30 AM EDT	Reads:	2,012

Judge William Alsup, who's hearing the Oracle v Google suit over Android, has given the pair a terse one-paragraph order ahead of the Daubert hearing Google asked for next week to limit possible damages.

"It appears," he said, that it's "possible that early on Google recognized that it would infringe patents protecting at least part of Java, entered into negotiations with Sun to obtain a license for use in Android, then abandoned the negotiations as too expensive, and pushed home with Android without any license at all."

He wants to know "How accurate is this scenario? Does Google acknowledge that Android infringes at least some of the claims if valid? If so, how should this affect the damages analysis? How should this affect the questions of willfulness and equitable relief? Counsel should be prepared to address these issues at the hearing" on July 21.

IP analyst Florian Mueller told IDG the judge appears to be pushing Google to settle the multibillion-dollar suit. Google of course figures it's owed $2.6 billion.

Published July 14, 2011 Reads 2,012
Copyright © 2011 Ulitzer, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

More Stories By Maureen O'Gara

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara

Comments (0)

Add your comment
You must be signed in to add a comment. Sign-in | Register

In accordance with our Comment Policy, we encourage comments that are on topic, relevant and to-the-point. We will remove comments that include profanity, personal attacks, racial slurs, threats of violence, or other inappropriate material that violates our Terms and Conditions, and will block users who make repeated violations. We ask all readers to expect diversity of opinion and to treat one another with dignity and respect.

Ulitzer

Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ulitzer, Inc. is prohibited.

Ulitzer content is offered under Creative Commons "Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives" License. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get written permission from Ulitzer, Inc., the copyright holder. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.

Google's Search, Development and Enterprise Discussions

Google on Ulitzer