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September 23, 2011

Negotiations between Oracle and Google Fail To Make Progress in Android Lawsuit

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor

It appears that two days of negotiations between Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Google CEO Larry Page failed to produce a settlement on the legal dispute over the Android (News - Alert) OS. It is possible that negotiations will continue before the case goes to trial, according to court records.



“Lead counsel shall contact the courtroom deputy to the undersigned to schedule a call tomorrow regarding when further discussions will take place and whether the further attendance of Mr. Ellison and Mr. Page will be required,” a new court document in the case read.

In 2010, Oracle (News - Alert) filed the lawsuit against Google. It claims that Android mobile technology infringes on Oracle's Java patents, according to TMCnet.

Oracle acquired the Java programming language when it purchased Sun Microsystems (News - Alert), according to PCWorld. Google (News - Alert) denies the allegations. Pretrial proceedings have been stormy.

When commenting on the case, Florian Mueller questioned whether the two CEOs would continue in their attempts to mediate the case.

“Theoretically, the reference to the further participation of the two Larrys could mean two things,” Mueller said in a blog post on Foss Patents. “It could indicate that a philosophical agreement has been reached and the parties only need to hammer out some more detail, in which case the two Larrys might not be needed anymore. But more likely, the court has realized that there isn't much hope for an agreement and recognizes that it wouldn't be reasonable to ask for too much time on the two CEOs' part.”

On Thursday, Oracle said it had about $1.16 billion worth of damages from Google’s alleged infringement of Java technology found in the Android OS, Reuters reported.

The revised damages amount is one-fifth of the maximum $6.1 billion that Oracle had attempted to get earlier, Reuters (News - Alert) added.

The case is set to go to trial on Oct. 31 before U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup in San Francisco. Alsup had rejected Oracle's request for up to $6.1 billion.



Ed Silverstein is a TMCnet contributor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell
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