Oracle Sues Google Over Android

[Jack Coats]

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 8:49 AM, Matthew Gillen <me-5yx05kfkO/aqeI1yJSURBw at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> EndSoftPatents.org's wiki has a page on this that is pretty informative:
>
> http://en.swpat.org/wiki?title=Oracle_v._Google_%282010,_USA%29
>
> Looking over the actual patents at issue, I can't believe that they would
> actually stand up to any sort of scrutiny, with respect to either prior art or
> obviousness.  The wiki has discussions (or bickering, depending on how
> charitable you feel) of prior art for all of them.  IANAL, so I don't know how
> compelling that will be to a jury of non-computer-scientists, but I'm actually
> kind of hoping Google goes to the mat on this one so we can find out.  Not to
> mention providing a nice test case to feel out some repercussions of the
> SCOTUS Bilski ruling.
>
> I don't think they will, just because a long period of uncertainty over
> something where the stakes are high can be lethal to big company.  And patent
> fights can last a long time.
>
> On the other hand, it's worth noting that IBM, Redhat, Novell and others
> weathered just that kind of storm with the whole SCO mess.
>
> So I guess it boils down to whether Google feels this is a threat to their
> core business.  The good part about the SCO fiasco was that there were some
> deep-pocket companies whose core business was threatened, so they felt the
> need to stand up and get this resolved.
>
> Matt


Comparing SCO to Oracle is a bit strange.  SCO was doing it to try to stay
alive (and apparently it was to mainly feed lawyers).  Oracle has additional
business models that actually generate positive cash flow.

But I understand the tempting comparison.

><> ... Jack
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart... Colossians 3:23