Will Oracle get what they feel they deserve from ongoing legal wrangles over Googles’s Android operating system which Oracle claim borrows more than its fair share of technology from patents owned by Oracle.
In an article written the other day about what Oracle hope to achieve in damages from Google, the results of a re-examination are finally in and do not look that promising for Oracle after all:
In the re-examination of US Patent 6192476 – 17 of the 21 claims have been reject by the USPTO.
The big issue for Oracle V Google:
With this re-examination taking:
a) A long time,
and
b) Questioning just how much Oracle can expect to take to trial after this set back in only one area of its numerous claims.
It brings into sharp focus just how many legs this case has in the eyes of US law makers.
In May the Judge had asked Oracle to slim down it’s original claims from over 130, and it now looks likely that this will force Oracle to do just that or have to wait for re-examination of each area of patent under dispute….timely to say the least!
Should Oracle bow down to pressure?
So should Oracle narrow its claims as advised by the court and keep them happy or should they stick to their guns and wait to see the outcome and decision of the courts in moving forward with minimum changes to the current claims made against Google and the Android operating system.
An illustration below shows just what claims are being made against Google and what number are subjected to a re-examination process (still enforceable), and the total number of claims that are still surviving:
Summary:
“While the above table indicates there are presently still 122 claims surviving, no office action has issued in four of the cases. In the three cases where an office action has issued the stats are 66 claims, 16 claims not subject to reexam, 50 claims subject to reexam, 46 claims rejected, and 20 claims surviving. Consistent with reexamination stats that have been produced in academic studies showing 90+% of claims being rejected on reexam, here it is 92%. If that stat holds for the remaining four patents, Oracle will only have about 48 claims out of 168 that survive, and not all of those will be independent claims.”
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110621192510777
An interesting battle is under-way in the US courts, just who the eventual winner will be we really do not know…still early days really.
Who do you think will win and what effects will this have on operations at each company?
Editorial Staff