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Jury deadlocks on key item in Google-Oracle trial [Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, IA)](Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, IA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) SAN FRANCISCO - A federal jury failed to agree on a pivotal issue in Oracle's copyright-infringement case against Google, blunting the impact of its finding that Google relied on another company's technology to build its popular Android software for mobile devices. The impasse reached Monday in San Francisco hobbles Oracle Corp.'s attempt to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Google on grounds that the Internet search leader pirated parts of Android from Oracle's Java programming system. Although the jury decided Android infringes on some of Java's copyrights, the five men and seven women on the panel were divided on whether Google's actions were permissible under "fair use" protections of U.S. law. The fair-use provision allows excerpts of copyrighted work to appear in other creative expressions, such as books, movies and computer software. With the fair-use question still dangling, Oracle now appears to have little hope of emerging from the trial with a windfall. Oracle, a business software maker, had been seeking up to $1 billion in damages and a court order that might have forced Google to reprogram Android if a licensing agreement couldn't be worked out. U.S. District Judge William Alsup advised lawyers on both sides Monday that there is "zero finding of copyright liability" without a fair-use verdict. The same jury will decide on damages later. (c) 2012 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |