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Tag: Oracle

  • Oracle Contends Google was Aware it Needed to License Java APIs

    Google’s trial against Oracle, who is suing over patent infringement regarding the use of Java in building the Android OS, finally commenced yesterday – 18 months after Oracle’s initial complaint, with Oracle submitting its opening statements.

    While the main point of contention is whether or not Google violated any copyrights, the trial will be more about whether or not Oracle can to get a jury to agree that some portions of its Java APIs (application programming interfaces) can be classified as created works of art, and thus protected. The outcome of the trial could set a precedent regarding software developers’ use of open-source content.

    While both companies insist that Java is indeed open-source and cannot be infringed upon, Oracle asserts that certain parts of Java’s APIs can be in effect stolen and manipulated. Oracle kicked off the trial by stating that Google knew from the beginning that they would need some sort of licensing deal while altering Java to accomodate the development of its Android. Google will likely counter with asserting that the APIs in question were open-source in the first place, which is likely the jist of their entire argument.

    While Google offers its Android OS for free to software developers, Oracle is seeking to go after the ad revenue generated by content embedded within the platform, which could equate to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. As I’d previously reported, the trial could transpire in three stages – copyright claims, patent claims and a third stage to asses any damages to be awarded to Oracle, if the company wins the first two segments. If the final stage is met, damages will depend on whether or not Oracle can prove that Google willfully violated any patents, which automatically triples fines. The Google/Android, Oracle/Java saga finally begins to unfold.

  • Google, Oracle Trial Begins Today

    Google, Oracle Trial Begins Today

    With the recent reports of Google and Oracle possibly settling out of court over a Java/Android patent-infringement case coming to and end, the trial begins today, 18 months after Oracle’s initial complaint.

    To recap, Oracle is suing Google over using Java in developing its Android OS, and seeks damages, which could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and more seriously, seeks to have the internet search giant change the code of the operating system. Google maintains that no infringement was committed, and that Oracle’s lawsuit is an attack on the open-source Java community. As another hit to Oracle, 5 of the patents it originally held at the time of the initial complaint have been invalidated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, and another one is set to expire.

    The main point of contention will be whether or not APIs (application programming interfaces) can be copyrighted, which could set a precedent for developers besides Google, and the trial could cover three stages – copyright claims, patent claims and a third stage to asses any damages to be awarded to Oracle, if the company wins the first two segments. If the final stage is met, damages will depend on whether or not Oracle can prove that Google willfully violated any patents, which automatically triples fines.

    While both sides agree that Java is open-source and can’t be infringed upon, Oracle asserts that Java APIs are so complex that they can be considered to be protected like a creative work of art would be. Oracle also asserts that Google manipulated the APIs to build “not a compatible version of Java, but an incompatible one.” Google’s lawyers responded, stating, “Without the APIs, the Java programming language is deaf, dumb and blind.”

    High level executives from both companies are expected to participate in trial, and both outfits will need to present video presentations to better convey some highly technical discussion to the members of the jury. It will be interesting to see how the case plays out.

  • Google, Oracle Going to Trial

    It has been confirmed that Google and Oracle will definitely be going to trial, after talks for an out-of-court settlement ultimately failed. The trial will commence two weeks from today. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal had asked both parties to try to work out a settlement before April 9th, and even though both companies had another week, it was made clear that there would be no understanding.

    Grewal issued a memo on Monday explaining that “the parties have reached an irreconcilable impasse in their settlement discussions with the undersigned,” and that “no further conferences shall be convened.” He added, “in the end, some cases just need to be tried,” and wished both parties good luck. Google and Oracle’s legal teams are set to meet up at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco in front of Judge William H. Alsup on April 16.

    Oracle is suing Google over Java-related patents and technology that exist within the Android mobile operating system. Google’s legal team has repeatedly responded by pointing out Google’s relationship with Sun Microsystems, the developer of Java, which is now owned by Oracle. Google argued that Sun was a supporter of Android from the start, and sees it as a medium to “spread news and word about Java.” And, Google did propose an offer that included a cut of Android’s revenue through 2018, which Oracle will now only receive if it prevails on patent infringement. Oracle likewise had proposed measures to help streamline the suit, by dropping one patent claim.

    Google, owner of Motorola Mobility, is also being sued by Apple and Microsoft, to where European antitrust authorities may investigate a resolution regarding additional patent disputes. Both claimants have asked for help in concluding this matter, which might ultimately lead to hefty fines for Google.

  • Google, Oracle Ordered To Discuss Patent Settlements Before Trial

    Ahead of a Java’s patent lawsuit against Google scheduled for April 16, a judge ordered on Friday that executives from both companies convene in order to discuss a potential settlement. Despite previous failed attempts to arrive at a settlement, Judge Paul Grewal of U.S. District Court in Northern California has ordered that the settlement conference take place “no later than April 9, 2012” and must at least include the presence of Oracle President Safra Catz and Google Senior Vice President (and former Android CEO) Andy Rubin.

    The lawsuit stems from Oracle’s accusation that Google’s Android platform uses Oracle’s Java technology in such a way that violates Oracle’s patents. Google has denied any patent or copyright violation. The two companies have met before to attempt to agree on a settlement. Many of those meetings included Google CEO Larry Page and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, but the companies couldn’t arrive on any kind of agreement. It would appear that the judge believes that a meeting of two different executives from the respective companies might yield fresh results since previous meetings between Ellison and Page didn’t lead to any settlements.

    According to Ars Technica, Oracle claims that Google has violated two patents it owns – a claim that has been scaled down from an original claim of seven. One patent is for a system that improves on “conventional systems for initializing static arrays by reducing the amount of code executed by the virtual machine to statically initialize an array” whereas the second one is “a hybrid compiler-interpreter comprising a compiler for ‘compiling’ source program code.” At the essence of the patent lawsuit, Oracle claims its copyright on APIs have been violated by Google; alternately, Google is sticking to the argument that APIs aren’t copyrightable.

    Google’s been defending itself in the realm of patents for some time now, most notably against accusations from Apple that the Android platform violates several of Apple’s copyrights. Apple offered to settle with two companies that make Android-supported devices, Motorola Mobility (owned by Google) and Samsung. And, to make sure no tech company is left out of the patent wars, Microsoft filed formal complaints to the European Union in February over the licensing fee Motorola Mobility charges for use of its technology.

  • Oracle And Google To Have Their Day In Court On April 16th

    Oracle is finally going to get the chance to prove claims that Google infringed their patents. The two companies will be getting their day in court on April 16 in federal court in San Francisco. The trial is expected to last about eight weeks.

    Oracle first filed suit against Google in 2010, alleging that the Android operating system violated several patents related to Java. The patents were obtained by Oracle in its acquisition of Sun Microsystems earlier in 2010. Though, as Reuters is reporting, at present only two patent claims remain in the complaint, Oracle still stands to receive damages in the millions of dollars if the trial goes their way.

    Late last month Oracle streamlined its case by eliminating one of its patent claims from the complaint. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had rejected Oracle’s claim concerning the patent.

    Oracle has not yet responded to a request for comment, but a Google spokesperson had the following to say:

    This was Oracle’s third failed attempt to come up with realistic damages. These patent and copyright claims are without merit, and we look forward to defending against them at trial.

  • HP Planning Amazon Web Service Competitor

    HP Planning Amazon Web Service Competitor

    Hewlett-Packard is preparing to launch a cloud computing platform that will compete directly with Amazon Web Services. The project, which which will be more business-oriented than AWS, is expected to launch by May, according to the HP executive in charge of the program.

    In an interview with The New York Times, HP’s senior vice president and manager of cloud services Zorawar Singh said that the goal of the project is not to compete directly with Amazon, but to go above and beyond what Amazon offers. HP’s cloud platform will offer a variety of tools for businesses and developers, including support for a variety of software languages like Java and Ruby, database and data analytics tools.

    HP has apparently had this project in the works for some time. The project is meant to be a new way for HP to compete with Amazon’s cloud, as well as to compete with some of HP’s other, more traditional competitors, including IBM and Oracle. HP wants to offer a wider array of tools at a better price than any of its competitors in the market.

    HP has struggled in recent years thanks to a series of under-performing products and mismanagement by recent CEOs. Current CEO Meg Whitman has taken several steps to get HP back on track. Though this new cloud platform is one of them, the short-term goal of the project is not to have a major impact on HP’s overall revenue. Rather, Singh said, the goal is as much to help HP’s other divisions do their own business as it is to generate revenue.

  • CIA Changing The Way They Buy Software

    CIA Changing The Way They Buy Software

    The CIA is changing the way it buys technology in hopes to stay on top of the constantly evolving technology landscape.

    Reuters is reporting that in a meeting with software vendors on Tuesday, the CIA’s top tech officer, Ira Hunt, told vendors that the agency was changing the way they do business. The way the CIA had done business before was that they would buy all of a vendor’s product through enterprise licensing agreements.

    The new way of doing business will see the agency paying for what services they need based on what is required at the time. This will reportedly allow the CIA to take advantage of “emerging capabilities early on.”

    Another reason for the change is simple money saving practices. It’s no secret that the U.S. government is slashing spending across the board and the CIA needs to find ways to cut spending just like every other government agency.

    The CIA uses software from companies like Oracle Corp, SAP AG and HP that help them look through data for potential threats or other information that may be beneficial to the administration.

    When Hunt presented the CIA’s new stance to vendors, he assured them that the agency wasn’t trying to screw over any of the companies. He even offered to let the companies involved take a peek at their operations to make sure they weren’t being swindled.

    At the same conference, it was said that current tools can’t keep up with the amount of data being collected by drones and sensors. It’s quite probable that this is a major reason for the change in policy as well. Applying a pay-as-you-go system would allow the CIA to adopt new technologies at a much faster rate.

  • Oracle Drops One Patent Claim In Suit Against Google

    Oracle Drops One Patent Claim In Suit Against Google

    Oracle, perhaps most commonly known for Java, may be slowly giving in to Google over their year and a half long legal fight over the Android operating system.

    We reported on the legal fight when it first broke out back in 2010. At that point in time, Oracle was claiming that Google infringed upon their patents with the search engine giant’s use of Java in the Android operating system.

    PCWorld reported that Google filed a motion to have the judge throw out a specific claim in the patent case. The company claimed that the patent covered “patent-ineligible subject matter.”

    Oracle beat them to the punch, however, by filing their intention to no longer pursue the claim in question. Oracle’s attorney Michael Jacobs detailed the reasoning behind them dropping the claim in the filing:

    “As part of its continuing effort to streamline the case for trial and make best use of the Court’s and parties’ resources, Oracle has today by separate letter to Google withdrawn the assertion of Claim 14 of the ‘476 patent, the only claim that is the subject of Google’s précis letter (and the only remaining asserted claim of the ‘476 patent).”

    In December, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected the claim that Oracle has just dropped. It was probably a leading reason in their decision to drop the claim.

    One dropped claim, however, doesn’t mean the end for Google’s and Oracle’s fight over the rest of the patents in question. Oracle said they dropped the claim to speed things up, but it remains to be seen if the lawsuit will actually get anywhere this year.

    We’ll keep you updated on any developments.

  • Taleo Acquired By Oracle For $1.9 Billion

    Taleo Acquired By Oracle For $1.9 Billion

    Oracle and cloud-based talent management company Taleo announced today that Oracle is buying Taleo for about $1.9 billion.

    Oracle says that with Taelo, it intends to create a comprehensive cloud offering for organizations to manage their HR operations and employee careers.

    “Human capital management has become a strategic initiative for organizations,” said Thomas Kurian, EVP, Oracle Development. “Taleo’s industry leading talent management cloud is an important addition to the Oracle Public Cloud.”

    “Taleo’s integrated cloud-based talent management solutions optimize how organizations hire, manage, develop and reward their employees and gives companies the intelligence needed to capitalize on their most critical asset – their people,” said Michael Gregoire, Chairman and CEO of Taleo. “Joining forces with Oracle gives us the opportunity to better serve our customers.”

    Gregoire posted the following letter on the Taleo site:

    Taleo Customers and Partners,

    On February 9, 2012, Taleo announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Oracle Corporation. The proposed transaction is subject to Taleo stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals, and customary closing conditions and is expected to close mid-year 2012. Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently, and it is business as usual.

    Together, Oracle and Taleo expect to create a comprehensive cloud offering to help organizations improve the performance of their business by unlocking the power of their people. The combination is expected to empower employees and managers to effectively manage careers throughout their entire employment, enable organizations to retain talent and optimize costs, and improve the employee experience through faster on boarding and better collaboration with team members via social media.

    Taleo’s industry leading talent management cloud is an important addition to the Oracle Public Cloud offering.

    We look forward to continuing to deliver the solutions and services that you have come to expect from Taleo and will be providing you with important updates on how this combination will benefit our customers and partners around the world.

    Best Regards,

    Michael Gregoire
    Chairman and CEO

    Oracle is in the process of reviewing Taleo’s product roadmap. The company says it will be providing guidance to customers.

  • RightNow Technologies to be Acquired by Oracle for $1.5 Billion

    RightNow Technologies to be Acquired by Oracle for $1.5 Billion

    Oracle announced it will be acquiring RightNow Technologies, a company that provides cloud-based customer service. The deal is for about $1.5 billion.

    The transaction has already been unanimously approved by Oracle’s board, though still subject to regulatory approvals. It’s expected to close by late 2011/early 2012.

    “RightNow’s products add leading customer experience capabilities that help empower companies to interact with and provide a consistent experience to customers across channels,” said RightNow CEO Greg Gianforte. “We look forward to combining our complementary capabilities along with maintaining and expanding our presence in Bozeman, Montana in order to better service our customers.”

    “Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of Cloud Solutions including sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud,” said Thomas Kurian, EVP, Oracle Development. “RightNow’s leading customer service cloud is a very important addition to Oracle’s Public Cloud.”

    Oracle has an interesting presentation available (pdf) looking at how it intends to implement RIghtNow into its strategy. Here’s a flow chart that shows the B2C Plan:

    B2C implementation  

    And the B2B plan:

    B2B implementation  

    RightNow is a 1,000-employee company headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. Its services are already used by about 2,000 organizations.

  • Google Calls Microsoft, Apple Patent Strategy Anti-Competitive [Updated]

    Google ran an interesting post from its Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond on the Official Google Blog today called “When Patents Attack Android.”

    It tells a tale of two tech giants teaming up to impede the progress of a third tech giant. More specifically, Google is being attacked through a patent war by Microsoft and Apple (along with Oracle and others). Drummond writes:

    They’re doing this by banding together to acquire Novell’s old patents (the “CPTN” group including Microsoft and Apple) and Nortel’s old patents (the “Rockstar” group including Microsoft and Apple), to make sure Google didn’t get them; seeking $15 licensing fees for every Android device; attempting to make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android (which we provide free of charge) than Windows Mobile; and even suingBarnes & Noble, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung. Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it.

    A smartphone might involve as many as 250,000 (largely questionable) patent claims, and our competitors want to impose a “tax” for these dubious patents that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers. They want to make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices. Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation.

    Now Google, who has often been called names like “anti-competitive” by Microsoft and other competitors,  is calling this whole strategy “anti-competitive”.

    “Microsoft and Apple’s winning $4.5 billion for Nortel’s patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1 billion,” Drummond adds. “Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anti-competitive means — which means these deals are likely to draw regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop.”

    The Nortel patent portfolio in question is currently under Department of Justice scrutiny. So is Google’s proposed acquisition of AdMeld. Meanwhile, the FTC is investigating Google’s broader business practices.

    Various other Googlers are sharing Drummond’s post on Google+. A few are adding their own commentary. Amit Fulay simply added, “Well said David…”

    Google’s Jeff Huber added, “Sad when competition shifts from trying to have better products & user experiences, and enabling user choice, to collusion and having more lawyers…”

    Update: Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith tweeted the following:

    @BradSmi
    Brad Smith    Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no. 13 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    And…

    Microsoft’s Head of Communications Frank Shaw tweeted the following:

    @fxshaw
    Frank X. Shaw    Free advice for David Drummond – next time check with Kent Walker before you blog. 🙂 http://t.co/PfKle9H 11 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    The link shows an email, which says:

    Brad –
    Sorry for the delay in getting back to you — I came down with a 24-hour bug on the way back from San Antonio. After talking with people here, it sounds as though for various reasons a joint bid wouldn’t be advisable for us on this one. But I appreciate your flagging it, and we’re open to discussing other similar opportunities in the future.
    I hope the rest of your travels go well, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.
    – Kent

    Update 2: Google Has updated its original post in response to Microsoft:

    Drummond writes:

    It’s not surprising that Microsoft would want to divert attention by pushing a false “gotcha!” while failing to address the substance of the issues we raised. If you think about it, it’s obvious why we turned down Microsoft’s offer. Microsoft’s objective has been to keep from Google and Android device-makers any patents that might be used to defend against their attacks. A joint acquisition of the Novell patents that gave all parties a license would have eliminated any protection these patents could offer to Android against attacks from Microsoft and its bidding partners. Making sure that we would be unable to assert these patents to defend Android — and having us pay for the privilege — must have seemed like an ingenious strategy to them. We didn’t fall for it.

    Ultimately, the U.S. Department of Justice intervened, forcing Microsoft to sell the patents it bought and demanding that the winning group (Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, EMC) give a license to the open-source community, changes the DoJ said were “necessary to protect competition and innovation in the open source software community.” This only reaffirms our point: Our competitors are waging a patent war on Android and working together to keep us from getting patents that would help balance the scales.

    Update 3: Frank Shaw fired back again with a series of tweets:

    @fxshaw
    Frank X. Shaw    Hello again David Drummond. This is going to take a few tweets, so here we go. Let’s look at what Google does not dispute in their reply. 16 hours ago via Seesmic · powered by @socialditto

    @fxshaw
    Frank X. Shaw    We offered Google the opportunity to bid with us to buy the Novell patents; they said no. 16 hours ago via Seesmic · powered by @socialditto

    @fxshaw
    Frank X. Shaw    Why? BECAUSE they wanted to buy something that they could use to assert against someone else. 16 hours ago via Seesmic · powered by @socialditto

    @fxshaw
    Frank X. Shaw    SO partnering with others & reducing patent liability across industry is not something they wanted to help do 16 hours ago via Seesmic · powered by @socialditto

  • Oracle Turns OpenOffice Into A Community-Based Project

    The longtime, free alternative to Microsoft Office will be changing hands in regards to development and supervision as Oracle announced their intentions to turn OpenOffice into a community-based, open source project. Not only that, but they also plan on discontinuing OpenOffice’s pay version, which sounds an awful lot like Oracle is leaving the document-creation business altogether.

    While Oracle is expected to assist in the transition, it’s clear the time that’s been put into making OpenOffice a viable alternative to the ever-present Office suite is at an end. The announcement of Oracle’s intentions was also accompanied by the following statement:

    “Given the breadth of interest in free personal productivity applications and the rapid evolution of personal computing technologies, we believe the OpenOffice.org project would be best managed by an organization focused on serving that broad constituency on a non-commercial basis,” said Edward Screven, Oracle’s Chief Corporate Architect. “We intend to begin working immediately with community members to further the continued success of Open Office. Oracle will continue to strongly support the adoption of open standards-based document formats, such as the Open Document Format (ODF).”

    Based on other readings, it sounds like Oracle wasn’t entirely sure how to manage OpenOffice.

    OpenOffice

    According to The Register, there was split in the creative team responsible for OpenOffice which resulted in the following:

    The Document Foundation was created in September 2010 by community members of the OpenOffice project when Oracle refused to release OpenOffice as an independent project. The Document Foundation is building the OpenOffice fork Libre Office.

    Apparently, the differences began in 2010 when Oracle took what was perceived as a strong-arm approach to the software suite. While there is some ambiguity concerning the future of the OpenOffice project, the fact that Oracle relinquished control of the property should provide some level of hope to OpenOffice supporters, but again, the Register cautions:

    Also, too, whether Oracle will – as is likely – retain the OpenOffice trademark, which would mean that it would retain the ultimate form of control over what changes go into OpenOffice.

    Considering the success of Google Docs, one would think there’s room for additional office productivity software suites that don’t cost consumers a thing.

  • Verdict: SAP to Pay Oracle $1.3 Billion

    Verdict: SAP to Pay Oracle $1.3 Billion

    Oracle is reportedly being awarded $1.3 Billion from SAP, as the result of a jury’s verdict following an 11-day trial. The case dates back to 2007 when Orcale sued SAP for illegal downloading of its software for resale to Oracle customers, by TommorowNow, a company SAP acquired in 2005. 

    Oracle filed suit against SAP the Spring of 2007, after the company discovered TomorrowNow was accessing Oracle databases with former customer passwords and downloading proprietary information. TomorrowNow used the downloads to sell products to Oracle customers for half the price of what Oracle was charging. 

    Here’s a snippet from our coverage in July of 2007, just after TomorrowNow admitted it had downloaded the files:

    SAP to pay Oracle 1.3 billionSAP is defending its subsidiary by saying that TN customers authorized them to download files on their behalf, a defense Eric Goldman calls the "proxy defense" that’s doomed to fail.<

    "Oracle can control the manner and means by which people access its servers," writes Goldman, "so even if it permits its customers to access the site, that permission isn’t automatically extensible to third parties acting on the customers’ behalf. Indeed, Oracle expressly precluded such behavior in some cases."

    According to Bloomberg, who broke the news:

    The verdict, which came after one day of deliberations, is the biggest ever for copyright infringement and the largest U.S. jury award of 2010, according to Bloomberg data. The award is about equal to SAP’s forecasted net income for the fourth quarter, excluding some costs, according to the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

    SAP spokesman Bill Wohl said the German software maker will pursue all available options, including post-trial motions and will appeal if necessary. “This will unfortunately be a prolonged process and we continue to hope that the matter can be resolved appropriately without more years of litigation.”

    Former SAP CEO Leo Apotheker is of course now running HP, which has created some turbulence between Oracle and HP this year.

  • Oracle Acquiring E-Commerce Company ATG for $1 Billion

    Oracle announced today that it’s buying e-commerce software company Art Technology Group (ATG) for about $1 billion. 

    "Driven by the convergence of online and traditional commerce and the need to increase revenue and improve customer loyalty, organizations across many industries are looking for a unified commerce and CRM platform to provide a seamless experience across all commerce channels," said Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President of Oracle Development. "Bringing together the complementary technologies and products from Oracle and ATG will enable the delivery of next-generation, unified cross-channel commerce and CRM."

    "More than 1,000 global enterprises rely on ATG’s solutions to help increase the value of their online customer interactions," said Bob Burke, President and CEO of ATG. "This combination will enhance the ability to bring all their commerce activities together – creating a more consistent and relevant experience for their customers across all interaction channels, including online, in stores, via mobile devices and with call centers."

    The company offers a variety of e-commerce products and services: 

    ATG's Products and Services

    "The addition of ATG, which brings market-leading products used by some of the largest and most well-known retailers and brands, furthers Oracle’s strategy of delivering industry-specific enterprise applications," added Bob Weiler, Executive Vice President, Oracle Global Business Units. "This acquisition builds upon our dedication to offer the most complete and integrated suite of best-of-breed software applications and technologies required to power the most demanding companies in the world in every industry."

    The acquisition has yet to gain stockholder or regulatory approval, and must go through other customary closing conditions, but Orcale expects to close the deal by early next year.

     

  • Google Seeks Dismissal Of Oracle Suit

    It’s official: Oracle’s accusations of patent infringement did not go over well at the Googleplex.  This week, Google responded to Oracle’s lawsuit by asking for the suit to be dismissed and Oracle’s patents declared invalid.  Google would like some money, too.

    If you’re in the mood to read a lot of legalese, Google’s full 27-page response to the lawsuit is available courtesy of John Paczkowski, and it’s not too terrible as such things go.  But we’ll try to hit the highlights.

    Here’s the main point(s) of the document: "Google specifically denies that Google has infringed or is liable for infringement of any valid and enforceable patents of Oracle.  Google further specifically denies that Oracle is entitled to any relief whatsoever of any kind against Google as a result of any act of Google or any person or entity acting on behalf of Google."

    GoogleThen another important detail is Google’s assertion that "Oracle’s claims . . . for alleged infringement of the Patents-in-Suit are barred by the doctrine of misuse."

    As a result (and as mentioned in the first paragraph), Google wants the complaint dismissed with prejudice.  It also wants Oracle’s patents to be declared invalid.  Finally, the company’s seeking "an award to Google of its reasonable costs and expenses of litigation, including attorneys’ fees and expert witness fees."

    This could turn into a fierce battle if the judge isn’t of a mind to make a decision quickly.

  • Oracle and HP Make Up

    Update 3: The companies have apparently resolved their differences and will continue their partnership. Bloomberg BusinessWeek has details. 

    Update 2: Oracle has responded with the following statement:

    “Oracle has long viewed HP as an important partner,” said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. “By filing this vindictive lawsuit against Oracle and Mark Hurd, the HP board is acting with utter disregard for that partnership, our joint customers, and their own shareholders and employees.   The HP Board is making it virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to cooperate and work together in the IT marketplace."

    Update: HP is now suing Hurd. The company released this statement:

    “Mark Hurd agreed to and signed agreements designed to protect HP’s trade secrets and confidential information.  HP intends to enforce those agreements.”

    More on HP’s corporate blog.

    Original Article: Oracle announced that Mark Hurd is now the Co-President of the company, and has been named to the Board of Directors. Yes, that Mark Hurd. 

    Hurd was recently forced to resign as CEO of HP after an internal investigation from the company around a questionable relationship with a contractor and related expense reports. It didn’t take long for him to get another job. 

     

    "Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do even better at Oracle," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark. Oracle’s future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise. Mark pioneered the integration of hardware with software when Teradata was a part of NCR."

     

    "Mark is an outstanding executive and a proven winner," said Oracle President Safra Catz. "I look forward to working with him for years to come. As Oracle continues to grow we need people experienced in operating a $100 billion business."

     

    Mark Hurd Resigns as HP CEO"I believe Oracle’s strategy of combining software with hardware will enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise servers and storage," said Hurd. "Exadata is just the beginning. We have some exciting new systems we are going to announce later this month at Oracle OpenWorld. I’m excited to be a part of the most innovative technology team in the IT industry."

     

    The New York Times ran a story a few weeks ago about Hurd’s reputation among HP’ staff. Let’s just say it was painted in an unfavorable light. Hopefully Oracle’s staff will get along with him better, if there’s any truth to that. 

  • Google Exits Conference Due To Oracle Suit

    Organizers of the JavaOne and Oracle Develop conference may be fielding more than a few emails and phone calls about refunds this afternoon.  Google, which was supposed to have a significant presence at the event, backed out today due to the lawsuit Oracle brought against it.

    Joshua Bloch, Google’s chief Java architect, wrote on the Google Code Blog, "[W]e’re sad to announce that we won’t be able to present at JavaOne this year.  We wish that we could, but Oracle’s recent lawsuit against Google and open source has made it impossible for us to freely share our thoughts about the future of Java and open source generally."

    Bloch then continued, "This is a painful realization for us, as we’ve participated in every JavaOne since 2004, and I personally have spoken at all but the first in 1996."

    A few onlookers have taken to debating whether this is a childish act on Google’s part (as opposed to a legal necessity), but by and large, people who left comments following Bloch’s post have just expressed disappointment.

    Which brings us back to the matter of cancellations and refunds, perhaps.  Unfortunately, the last day for even a 50 percent refund was August 20th.

    Another not-so-fun fact: the standard ticket to the JavaOne and Oracle Develop conference sold for $1,795 this year.

  • Google’s Reponse to the Oracle Suit

    As you may have read, Google is being sued by Oracle, who claims Google is infringing on several patents it holds, related to Java. These patents came to Oracle through its recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

    "In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property," said Oracle spokesperson Karen Tillman. "This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement."

    TechCrunch obtained the following statment from Google on the matter:

    "We are disappointed Oracle has chosen to attack both Google and the open-source Java community with this baseless lawsuit. The open-source Java community goes beyond any one corporation and works every day to make the web a better place. We will strongly defend open-source standards and will continue to work with the industry to develop the Android platform."

    Kara Swisher has the entire complaint in a Scribd document:

    FINAL Complaint

    The complaint deals with a total of seven patents. Jason Kincaid notes that Sun Microsystems was able to get $1.6 billion out of Microsoft related to patent disputes and antitrust issues.

  • Android Has a New Fight, This Time with Oracle

    Google has a new legal battle on its hands, and this time it’s over Android. Oracle has filed a complaint against Google, alleging that Google is infringing upon several patents it holds, related to Java.

    The properties in question would be those Oracle received in its Sun Microsystems acquisition earlier this year.

    "In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property," said Oracle spokesperson Karen Tillman. "This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement."

    Here’s the entire complaint (via Kara Swisher):

    FINAL Complaint

    There’s no question that Java is a big part of the Android ecosystem. Developers create Android apps with Java. According to Ars Technica, "Aside from its use of Java syntax, Google’s Android SDK implementation is largely independent from Oracle’s. It uses its own compiler and runtime tailored specifically for Android."

    Oracle’s complaint mentions seven patents in all, which it claims Google is infringing upon.

  • Oracle’s Sun Microsystems Acquisition Approved by EU

    Update: The European Commission has reportedly approved Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Now the deal only needs approval from Chinese and Russian regulators.

    Original Article:     Oracle is acquiring Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion in cash at a rate of $9.50 per share in cash.

    Safra Catz"We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle’s earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing," Oracle President Safra Catz said in a statement. "We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle’s non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year. This would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined."

    The two companies have long been partners – for over 20 years as Sun Chairman Scott McNealy pointed out. And now Oracle will own Java and Solaris.

    Jonathan Schwartz"This is a fantastic day for Sun’s customers, developers, partners and employees across the globe, joining forces with the global leader in enterprise software to drive innovation and value across every aspect of the technology marketplace," said Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz.

    "From the Java platform touching nearly every business system on earth, powering billions of consumers on mobile handsets and consumer electronics, to the convergence of storage, networking and computing driven by the Solaris operating system and Sun’s SPARC and x64 systems," he added. "Together with Oracle, we’ll drive the innovation pipeline to create compelling value to our customer base and the marketplace."

    The acquisition is expected to close sometime this summer. Sun’s board of directors has unanimously approved it.