Oracle and Google To Finally Enter Courtroom

Fluffeh writes "After around 900 motions and filings, not to mention a timeline of two years, Google and Oracle are finally putting their case before a jury which will be selected on Monday. While Oracle originally sued for billions, the possible damages have come down to a more reasonable $30-something million (the details vary depending on if you ask Google or Oracle). However, the sides are still far apart. Oracle's proposal was a minimum, not a maximum, and Oracle has asked for a tripling of damages because of the 'willful and deliberate nature of Google's infringement.' For ongoing royalties from future sales, Google has proposed payment of just over one-half of one percent of revenue if patent infringement is proven, but Oracle wants more. Beyond financial damages, Oracle has asked for a permanent order preventing Google from continuing to infringe the patents and copyrights. The case is planned to start on Monday afternoon, after jury selection or Tuesday at the latest."

At least all of the jurors...

[bdabautcb]

will be well enough educated in technology to make a reasonable decision based on evidence. The last time I had jury duty on a first degree murder case, the person selected from my pool brought a herd of ants into the jury room with his lunch bag (plastic bag from store checkout) and kept going on about how special he was because he and his wife had the only set of twins in the world with identical fingerprints. I am a biologist and was strucken from further review by the defense because I answered the question "Do you believe that DNA technology is accurate?" with "Yes sir, I believe it is accurate." It must be great to be a lawyer.

Re:One trashy company fighting another

[gbjbaanb]

oh, I don't know. If Oracle manage to kill Java entirely due to this lawsuit then we might all be winners. :-) :-)

Re:Even if the companies aren't trashy ...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, this is surprisingly dumb explanation of software patents.
This analogy doesn't address the fundamental issue: strangers locked in the room would kill each other even faster without a man with a gun, even if he's a complete madman this is somewhat consistent. And that is what will happen if there were no patents — hell on earth, not the rainbows and unicorns and Android that is actually usable.
No one changes this system because no one knows how to actually make it better, not only because some money are involved, and not only because no one gives a flying duck about the bright future of Android, unlike what most of /. crowd thinks.