In the ongoing legal battle between Oracle and Google over the Android mobile operating system, the presiding judge has ruled that the trial will proceed to a damages phase -- a third and final phase where a jury will decide whether Google must pay Oracle for infringing on its copyrights and patents.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on whether Google's use of 37 Java application program interfaces (API) went beyond "fair use" of Oracle's copyrights. But it did decide that Google infringed on the company's copyrights in lifting nine lines of code involving a programming method called rangeCheck. And on Friday, Judge William Alsup ruled that Google also infringed in lifting code from eight decompiled Oracle files.
The jury has yet to decide whether Google infringed on two Oracle patents in building a new version of the Java platform for Android. But Alsup indicates that even if the jury finds in favor of Oracle here, the software company is unlikely to receive large damages from Google.
Though Alsup said that Oracle was entitled to argue for damages in front of a jury, he frowned on Oracle's effort to win damages above and beyond the standard "statutory damages," saying the copyright decisions against Google did not warrant this. "There is no way that the law should allow a disgorgement of hundreds of millions of dollars over range check and decompile," he said, calling the proposition "hyper extreme."
The trial kicked off on April 16 with the copyright phase of the trial, which addressed Oracle's copyright claims, and then it continued into the patent phase, which is ongoing. Last week, Judge Alsup suggested that the two sides forgo a damages phase and let him -- rather than the jury -- decide on damages so that the trial could be streamlined. Google agreed, but Alsup said he needed agreement from both sides to do so, and Oracle declined.
Oracle sued Google in 2010 after it bought Sun Microsystems, accusing Google of infringing patents and copyrights related to Java, which Sun had developed. Because the jury was unable to reach a decision on the "fair use" question, Google has asked for a mistrial, citing previous Supreme Court law and the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but the judge has yet to rule on the motion.
Judge Alsup is also set to rule on whether APIs can be copyrighted in the first place, the big question that has hung over the trial.
