Oracle v Google Trial Date Set

Oracle And Google are set to battle it out in court on 16 April over claims that Google violated Oracle's intellectual property rights relating to the Java programming language.

This battle has been on-going since 2010 when Oracle first sued Google alleging that the Android mobile operating system had infringed numerous Java patents belonging to Oracle. Most of these patents have however been withdrawn since, following re-examination by the US Patent Office at the behest of Google.

US District Judge William Alsup has scheduled the trial and in his order there are just two patents remaining, out of the five initially asserted by Oracle. Oracle has also brought copyright infringement claims against Google, and those are expected to be the key part of the upcoming trial.

The damages, initially thought to be in the multi-billion dollar regions, could still run into hundreds of millions of dollars for Oracle, which acquired the Java programming language following its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010. However, independent patent blogger Florian Müller believes financial rewards are not Oracle's primary concern: "Oracle already made it clear months ago, and pointed out again and again over time, that its priority is to win an injunction against Android in order to "bring Android back into the Java fold."

This refers to Oracle's belief that Google has created derivative works of Java APIs and if Oracle wins an injunction based on these copyrighted APIs, then it could force Google to adhere to the official Java standard.

The trial will begin on 16 April and is expected to last for eight weeks.