In July 2010 software giant Oracle sued search engine giant Google for infringing on its patents. Oracle sought at least $1 billion in damages, but won nothing as their case collapsed.
This outcome may have been strongly influenced by a judge who learned the Java programming language to better understand the case. This was unknown until he addressed Oracle star attorney David Bois late in the trial: “I have done, and still do, a significant amount of programming.”
Five of the seven patents were declared invalid in re-examination. The 72 claims of the two was reduced to 8. The jury found none infringing. The judge found no copyright violation, much to the relief of Java programmers.
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