Their story began August of last year when Oracle filed an infringement lawsuit against Google as they believe that the Android platform illegally used their Java patents.   Over the past few months, the case progressed at a snail’s pace, which is normal for these types of court battles, as the review of patents can take months.

US District Judge William Alsup may request both sides to have their top executives, Larry Page for Google and Larry Ellison for Oracle, to appear for at least two full days in court for the hearing.  The trial is set to happen by October, as private mediation has failed to succeed.  Alsup aims to make this trial go as quickly as possible but this will only be possible if both companies cooperate.  The deadline for both parties regarding who they would send to appear in court is until noon today.

There is no doubt that Ellison will oblige to the request of a court appearance, as he appeared in the trial against SAP and is known for his showy court appearances.  The question, is will Page be making an appearance?

Though the trial date is drawing near, it seems as though Google is doing everything in its capacity to delay or move the trial to a later date.  The court allowed for a technical expert be present during the trial but Google argued that an industry expert should be the one present and not a technical expert.  Google states that industry experts have a broader knowledge and understanding of devices and how these influenced consumers when they purchase a product, while a technical expert will just focus on the patents and the improvement of performance, skipping over how consumers are affected.  Oracle believes otherwise, as they firmly expect that a technical expert would be the right person for this task.

Apple may aid Oracle in their battle against Google using the same tactic they used on their case against HTC.  Apple stated that Android developer Andy Rubin was a low level engineer at Apple during the time they were developing the iOS, which proves that Rubin has knowledge of the iOS and its features, so they should’ve have taken extreme caution when they built the Android platform so as not to infringe any of Apple’s patents.  This will probably be the same argument Oracle would use during the trial as there is evidence of Rubin’s intent on using Java illegally.

This potential tag-team poses a great threat to the Android platform and the Android revenue.  If Google does lose, aside from paying damages to Oracle, they probably would be entering a licensing agreement with Oracle.  That means the Android platform would cost more, and mobile manufacturers using Google’s platform would have to increase the price of their devices, taking away Android’s low price as a competitive advantage.  But the worst thing that could happen is Android would be abolished all together.  In any case, Apple wins.  No wonder Apple is eager to lend a hand to Oracle.

If this isn’t bad enough for Google, the Korean Fair Trade Commission raided their Seoul headquarters after ISP NGN and portal operator Daum accused Google of manipulating Android handsets to have Google services as their default service provider.  The allegations were vehemently denied by Google, as they stated that Android is an open source platform and service providers or mobile manufacturers have the option of using other browsers, services or apps.  So far carriers have taken advantage of Android’s openness, as AT&T has used Yahoo! as its search engine on select Android devices, Verizon uses Bing in a similar fashion, Baidu is using Android just as a base for its fully customized platform, and the rumored Amazon Kindle Tablet, expected to be powered by Android, will focus on Amazon’s own marketplace and app store.

Protecting the Android ecosystem

All the while, it’s Google’s search business that remains core to the company, and Android’s OS represents Google’s shift into the mobile arena.  A few changes to its AdMob platform reiterate Google’s true ecosystem.

AdMob, the mobile ad platform Google acquired nearly two years ago, and its own AdSense platform, have created confusion in the past, but Google’s working on rooting out redundancies and fully integrating AdMob.  It’s finally figured out who should use which service.  AdMob is for mobile app developers.  AdSense is for mobile web publishers.  Some of their features were integrated into the other.  AdSense’s AdSense for Mobile Applications beta participants have been switched to AdMob, which is now the primary ad solution for mobile app developers.  AdMob’s support for older WAP mobile sites will be discontinued by September 30.  Don’t get it twisted!