Oracle Sues Google over Java Patents

Wade Roush8/13/10

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), the Redwood City, CA-based database giant, filed a patent infringement complaint yesterday against Mountain View, CA-based Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit alleges that the Android mobile device operating system developed by Google includes Java code that infringes on patents Oracle acquired when it purchased Sun Microsystems last year. (Android competes directly with Java, which is also used as an operating system on some phones.) The suit calls for an injunction against further distribution of Android, and asks for monetary damages “in amounts to be determined at trial.” Neither Oracle nor Google have commented publicly on the suit.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent and editor of Xconomy San Francisco. You can subscribe to his Google Group or e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com. Follow @