One of the reasons why people watch Judge Judy and her colleagues regularly is that Americans have so much fun in court.
Last year it was Samsung and Apple, this year it appears to be Google and Oracle.
As James Niccolai of IDG News reports, things are heating up in their battle over whether Oracle can copyright the Java APIs it has control over.
It’s a case that involves Oracle’s allegation that Google infringed on Oracle’s Java patents in the creation of the Android mobile operating system.
On Thursday some three dozen computer scientists signed a brief filed with a California court about to hear Oracle’s appeal of a decision last year that went against it. The appeal itself has yet to be argued in court.
Google’s Android did not infringe Oracle patents: Jury
Oracle came into control of Java through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2009 for about US$7.9 billion.
At stake are potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for Oracle in Java API licencing fees.
The heart of the argument, however, is whether a piece of software code – the API –that’s part of a larger code – Java — can be copyrighted.