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Google is seeking a new trial on copyright claims in Oracle'sintellectual-property lawsuit against it over the Android mobileOS, according to a filing made late Tuesday in U.S. District Courtfor the Northern District of California. Oracle sued Google in August 2010, claiming Android violatedpatents and copyrights that Oracle holds on the Java programminglanguage, which it gained control of through the Sun Microsystemsacquisition. Google has argued that Android is a "clean room"implementation of the open-source language, and doesn't violateOracle's rights. [ InfoWorld's Simon Phipps says the Oracle-Google verdict signals need for copyright reform. Stay ahead of the key tech business news with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: First Look newsletter . Read Bill Snyder's Tech's Bottom Line blog for what the key business trends mean to you. ] This week, a jury delivered a partial verdict on the copyright claims in the case, finding that Google hadinfringed the "overall structure, sequence and organization" of thecode in 37 Java APIs (application programming interfaces). However,it did not answer the question of whether Google's infringement wasprotected under "fair use" of copyrighted works. Google's move for a new trial was not unexpected, having beenforeshadowed in court after the verdict by its attorney, Robert VanNest. "Under settled Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit law, the jury sfailure to reach a verdict concerning both halves of thisindivisible question requires a new trial concerning bothquestions," Google said in a brief accompanying its motion onTuesday. The court should declare a mistrial on both the copyrightinfringement and fair use questions, since doing so only regardingfair use would "violate the Seventh Amendment both by threateningGoogle with a non-unanimous verdict on liability, and by havingdetermination of the same factual question, or indivisible factualquestions, made by two different juries," Google added. Another layer of complexity lies in the fact that Judge WilliamAlsup, who is overseeing the case, has yet to rule on whether APIscan be copyrighted at all under U.S. law. Oracle had not yet directly responded to Google's motion onWednesday, but in another filing late Tuesday, lawyers for thecompany addressed the fair use issue. The lack of a verdict on fair use "means that, without some actionby the Court and/or the parties, the trial cannot proceed to afinal verdict with this jury," Oracle said. "Presenting the case toa second jury would be expensive, time-consuming and duplicative,and may impose a substantial additional delay." Oracle made a number of proposals in the filing, including thatboth it and Google stipulate that the court decide the issue offair use regarding Google's infringement of the APIs. Should Google agree to this, Oracle would drop its claim forinfringer's profits in connection with rangeCheck, a small amountof Java code that the jury found Google had copied, Oracle said.The court could then set statutory damages for rangeCheck, itadded. As an alternative, the parties could wait until the court rules onOracle's pending motion for a judgment as a matter of law on thefair use matter, the filing added. The patent phase of the case began this week. Should the trialproceed as originally planned, that segment will be followed by athird phase to determine damages. Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technologybreaking news for The IDG News Service . Chris's email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com . The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Bearing Casing Manufacturer , China Turbo Compressor Wheel, and more. For more , please visit Turbocharger Rotor today!
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