Oracle appears to have opened its campaign for a third trial over its claims Java copyright was infringed in Google’s Android.
Last time the verdict was for Google, so the software company’s lawyers are trying to get it overturned.
Oracle attorney Annette Hurst is reported (here and here) to have told District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, that Google hadn’t – at the time of the second trial – disclosed its plans to put Android apps “on millions of consumer desktops and laptops.”
That, according to Oracle, would be a game changer that challenges Java SE – Java on the desktop. According to the Courthouse News Service, Hurst asked that Alsup overturn the “fair use” verdict of the second trial on that basis.
“They worked on it for months in secret,” CNS quoted Hurst as saying. “They knew it. Google had an obligation to disclose it, and it was a game changer.”
Hurst was referring to Google’s 19 May announcement that Android apps were coming to Chromebooks as App Runtime for Chrome, or ARC, which it revealed at its I/O conference. May 19 was also the day Oracle wrapped up its evidence presentation for the second trial.
Judge Alsup also presided over the second trial against Google, which finished later in May.
Google’s attorney Christa Anderson, however, reportedly retorted on Wednesday that Oracle had referenced ARC in its pre-trial expert reports at the time and said nothing stopped Oracle from cross-examining Google’s witnesses about ARC.
The jury hearing of Oracle’s second case against Google in May found for Google, saying use of Java APIs in Android constituted “fair use”, dismissing Oracle’s $9bn copyright claim
[Source: The register]
