Oracle cites Google e-mails in court
An Oracle attorney cited e-mails among top executives at Google as prime evidence that Google took its intellectual property to gain an edge in the lucrative smartphone market, at the start of a high stakes trial between the two tech giants.
Opening statements between Oracle Corp. and Google Inc. began on Monday in a San Francisco federal court. Oracle sued Google in August 2010 over patent and copyright claims for the Java programming language.
According to Oracle, Google’s Android operating system tramples on its intellectual property rights to Java, which it acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2010. Google says it does not violate Oracle’s patents and that Oracle cannot copyright certain parts of Java.
The trial before U.S. District Judge William Alsup is expected to last at least eight weeks.
Oracle attorney Michael Jacobs said Google took copyrighted Java “blueprints” to harness the creative power of millions of Java software developers, so they then could write applications for Android. However, Google never obtained the proper licence, he claimed.
“You can’t just step on someone’s IP because you have a good business reason for it,” Jacobs said.
Google’s opening statement is scheduled to take place this morning. Spokesman Jim Prosser said Google is confident in its defences and that Oracle’s legal claims threaten the broad goal of making software systems work together smoothly.
Jacobs displayed several Google emails to the jury, which were relayed to the courtroom gallery on a high definition screen. In 2005, Android chief Andy Rubin sent one to Google co-founder Larry Page proposing to take a licence to Java.
“We’ll pay Sun for the licence,” Rubin wrote.
But according to Jacobs, a May 2007 e-mail from Rubin to then-ceo Eric Schmidt shows that Google consciously decided against taking a licence. Some spectators in the packed courtroom strained to read the e-mail, displayed alongside photos of Rubin and Schmidt.
“I’m done with Sun (tail between my legs, you were right),” Rubin wrote to Schmidt. “They won’t be happy when we release our stuff.”
Google’s Prosser said Java inventors cheered Android when it was released. But Jacobs told the jury that Sun executives were not happy behind closed doors, regardless of what they said publicly.
Before jury selection began, Alsup warned both companies that they should not expect to keep sensitive financial information secret. “This is a public trial,” he said. Jacobs did not divulge any financial details about Android during his presentation on Monday.
Early on in the case, estimates of potential damages against Google ran as high as $6.1 billion. But Google has narrowed Oracle’s claims to only two patents from seven originally, reducing the possible award. Oracle is seeking roughly $1 billion in copyright damages.