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Android patent trial set for next month

Android system violates Java patents, Oracle charges in patent and copyright suit against Google. Android suit could run into hundreds of millions of dollars. 

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Robert Galbraith/Reuters/File
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison addresses the audience during a 2010 speech in San Francisco. In a suit scheduled to start next month, Oracle is charging that Google's Android operating system violates two of its Java patents.
  • By Dan Levine Reuters

A U.S. judge scheduled a trial between Oracle Corp and Google Inc for April 16, 2012, over claims Google violated Oracle's intellectual property rights relating to the Java programming language, according to a ruling on Tuesday.

The trial is set to take place in a San Francisco federal court.

Oracle sued Google in 2010, alleging the Web search leader's Android mobile operating technology infringes Oracle's Java patents.

In addition to those patent claims, Oracle also leveled copyright infringement claims against Google. Oracle acquired the Java programming language through its purchase of Sun Microsystems in 2010.

Oracle agreed to withdraw several claims after the patents were struck down by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. However, two patents remain in the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge William Alsup wrote on Tuesday.

Combined with the copyright claims, Oracle's damages could still run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

"These patent and copyright claims are without merit, and we look forward to defending against them at trial," Google spokesman Jim Prosser said.

Oracle declined to comment.

In his order, Alsup wrote the trial is expected to last eight weeks.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Oracle America, Inc v. Google Inc, 10-3561.

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