UPDATED 13:45 EDT / JULY 26 2011

Utterly Overpriced! Court Orders Oracle to Lower Google Lawsuit Amount

Are you kidding me?!” If this statement would be legally appropriate and be accepted as a court ruling, then this would have been in the judge’s order by now, as we speak of Oracle’s case against Google. This ordeal became even more controversial when the former demanded the personal appearance of no less than Google’s top-ranked Larry Page to answer their questions in the Federal Court.

Apparently Oracle, which has been on a lawsuit spree recently, is suing Google for a mind-blowing $6 billion dollars for Android’s Java patent infringement. Today, the judge handling the case sees no concrete basis to allow this case to progress at such an amount. Instead, Oracle was ordered to revisit its panel and lower the asking damages cost to $100 million, the price Google offered, based on the original deal it rejected with Java prior to Sun Microsystems’ acquisition by Oracle.

If luck and law were to shift to Oracle’s arms, this would shake the IT community to an immeasurable magnitude. A part of the report says: “[t]here is a substantial possibility that a permanent injunction will be granted in the even infringement is found, especially if willfulness is proven.”

On the other hand, a generally sound argument was made by Google’s lawyers, and this goes for the entire industry. Patent infringement cases could very well stall innovation—with the definition of the word being a process of improving a process, product or service. Whereas, infringement would be blatantly copying someone’s patented and licensed portfolio. But, if and when Oracle emerges as the victor in this battle, Google’s growth might be impeded and finances might be strained, according to a PCworld article. Another argument that could disarm Oracle is then Java’s owner and SUN CEO Jonathan Schwartz openly endorsed the use of Java codes in Android long before it was sold to Google.

And still, the Oracle/SAP suit is still fresh in our recollection. In fact, the battle has begun a round two, but with tables turned.  SAP is asking for re-trial to decrease the initial $1.3 billion damage suit to just $40 plus million.  Sounding awfully familiar…

After winning over SAP last year, the Oracle bullies have moved on to Google. With all that’s been said and done, do you think Oracle and Larry Ellison are building an empire from lawsuit money?  Let’s wait and see who’s going be the next enterprise in Oracle’s legal hitlist.

 


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU