Oracle reduces patent claims in Google lawsuit

Oracle listed more than 130 patent claims in its original complaint against Google for infringing Java patents in mobile operating system Android. The presiding judge felt that this was too many claims for a trial scheduled to last three weeks and suggested reducing it to three.

Four weeks before the trial is expected to start, Oracle has now set out its position. Fifteen claims will be looked at, plus eleven 'mirrored' claims. This 'mirroring' of claims extends them from the pure method to a combination with an apparatus or a machine-readable medium. The claims are taken from six different patents, but one of the original patents, number 6125447, is no longer part of the complaint.

Oracle is demanding damages of at least $2.6 billion. This could triple if were to be proved that Google intentionally disregarded the patents – Google is hoping to withhold a number of emails, which might indicate the requisite intent, from the case.

It is still unclear, however, whether the trial will even take place. The two parties have met several times in recent days for face-to-face negotiations, in the initial stages of which both CEOs, Larry Ellison at Oracle and Larry Page at Google, were involved. The most recent meeting was held on 1 October, though the result of this meeting ise not known.

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