The Internet search giant is facing a trial over infringing the copyright to Java programming.
The legal battle between Google and Oracle has finally commenced and the eyes are set whether Oracle will succeed in taking billions of dollars out of Alphabet Inc.’s subsidiary pockets over the development of its most popular mobile operating system, Android.
The showdown began with the high profile witness none other than the executive chairman of Google’s parent –Alphabet Inc., Eric Schmidt.
Mr. Schmidt is a good one to start with. He has served at Sun Micro systems as an executive. The latter was bought by Oracle in 2010 and has been the stimulus of the current trial.
The executive was associated with Sun when it developed Java operating system and all the assorted programming stuff on which Google and Oracle have been arguing over. Therefore, he knows bits and pieces about it.
Also, he has been the Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet’s subsidiary when Google developed Android. He had had to lost his seat on Silicon Valley tech giant Apple Inc.’s board of directors as Google’s Android directly competed with the world’s most valuable company’s prestigious phone –the iPhone. The move miffed then Apple CEO Steve Job so much that, as retaliation to Schmidt’s betrayal, he vowed to go “thermonuclear” over Android.
During the court ruling, on Tuesday, Oracle’s attorney, Peter Bicks, put in a lot of efforts to make Mr. Schmidt admit that the usage of the Java programming language without the payment of appropriate royalty fees in the development of Android is wrong. The current disputed has been circling around Java’s application programming interfaces –also known as APIs –which let the two apps to share data and talk to each other.
The two companies have been intertwined with the legal battle for six years now. Back in 2012, a trial led the ruling in favor of Google against which Oracle filed for an appeal which it subsequently won. The Internet search engine has argued that under the compliance of “fair use provision” the use of Java APIs ought to be free of cost.
According to several transcripts reported from the trial, on multiple occasions Google’s executive during his testimony bested Oracle’s lawyer.
The lawyer also tried to make Mr. Schmidt admits that the company has made a lot of money from Android only to charge hefty amount of money in terms of penalty. He showed interest to talk about the most controversial public statements that said, “Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it.”
However, the line of questioning was cut off after the expiry of the scheduled deadline of 1pm of the trial but Mr. Schmidt is expected to resume the trial by answering the Oracle’s lawyer questions.
Several analysts have opined that even the exorbitant penalty will not hit the bottom line of the company hard. At the market which closed on Tuesday, Google Inc. stock stood at a price of $131.59.
The legal battle between Google and Oracle has finally commenced and the eyes are set whether Oracle will succeed in taking billions of dollars out of Alphabet Inc.’s subsidiary pockets over the development of its most popular mobile operating system, Android.
The showdown began with the high profile witness none other than the executive chairman of Google’s parent –Alphabet Inc., Eric Schmidt.
Mr. Schmidt is a good one to start with. He has served at Sun Micro systems as an executive. The latter was bought by Oracle in 2010 and has been the stimulus of the current trial.
The executive was associated with Sun when it developed Java operating system and all the assorted programming stuff on which Google and Oracle have been arguing over. Therefore, he knows bits and pieces about it.
Also, he has been the Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet’s subsidiary when Google developed Android. He had had to lost his seat on Silicon Valley tech giant Apple Inc.’s board of directors as Google’s Android directly competed with the world’s most valuable company’s prestigious phone –the iPhone. The move miffed then Apple CEO Steve Job so much that, as retaliation to Schmidt’s betrayal, he vowed to go “thermonuclear” over Android.
During the court ruling, on Tuesday, Oracle’s attorney, Peter Bicks, put in a lot of efforts to make Mr. Schmidt admit that the usage of the Java programming language without the payment of appropriate royalty fees in the development of Android is wrong. The current disputed has been circling around Java’s application programming interfaces –also known as APIs –which let the two apps to share data and talk to each other.
The two companies have been intertwined with the legal battle for six years now. Back in 2012, a trial led the ruling in favor of Google against which Oracle filed for an appeal which it subsequently won. The Internet search engine has argued that under the compliance of “fair use provision” the use of Java APIs ought to be free of cost.
According to several transcripts reported from the trial, on multiple occasions Google’s executive during his testimony bested Oracle’s lawyer.
The lawyer also tried to make Mr. Schmidt admits that the company has made a lot of money from Android only to charge hefty amount of money in terms of penalty. He showed interest to talk about the most controversial public statements that said, “Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it.”
However, the line of questioning was cut off after the expiry of the scheduled deadline of 1pm of the trial but Mr. Schmidt is expected to resume the trial by answering the Oracle’s lawyer questions.
Several analysts have opined that even the exorbitant penalty will not hit the bottom line of the company hard. At the market which closed on Tuesday, Google Inc. stock stood at a price of $131.59.