Oracle and Google legal battle seen a surprisingly end yesterday, when jury unanimously decided that Google did not infringe on two of Oracle’s patents. In a unanimous decision at the U.S. District Court of Northern California the jury in the trial said Google did not infringe on six claims across two separate patents: RE38,104 and 6,061,520. The verdict is a win for Google, and marks the end of the trial’s second phase, which focused on the claims of patent infringement.
Both Oracle and Google have provided the official statements in response to today’s verdict to The Verge.
Oracle: Oracle presented overwhelming evidence at trial that Google knew it would fragment and damage Java. We plan to continue to defend and uphold Java’s core write once run anywhere principle and ensure it is protected for the nine million Java developers and the community that depend on Java compatibility.
Google: Today’s jury verdict that Android does not infringe Oracle’s patents was a victory not just for Google but the entire Android ecosystem.
Furthermore, after the trial, Joe Mullin at Ars Technica did an interesting interview with the jury foreman:
After the copyright verdict, there had been some speculation around the Web that because the jury found that Google infringed copyright—but split on fair use—it was basically a pro-Oracle jury with one or two holdouts sticking up for Google. Talking to Thompson, it quickly became clear that wasn’t the case at all. A majority of jurors favored Google’s argument from the start, and the holdouts—primarily Thompson himself—were a beleaguered few favoring Oracle. At one point during the copyright phase, in fact, Thompson said he was the lone holdout. At the end, he swung a couple more jurors to his side, but they were still a distinct minority.
