Java

 

The Java and open source community’s collective jaw dropped today as Oracle launched a patent suit against Google, claiming it infringed Java patents in the Android mobile operating system.

Some expressed surprise, as Sun Microsystems open-sourced Java, and issued a patent grant before Oracle bought the company, which they believe should make Java free to use. Bruce Perens, quoted the list of demands in the patent grant, saying: “It’s not clear what Oracle is after. Could it be that Google’s Java implementation does not meet the above requirements?”

Java Mobile

It is indeed possible. Android’s creator, in an eWEEK interview last year, warned that Google’s free-and-easy approach with Java was in conflict with Sun’s Java approach. Miguel de Icaza has described the likely breakdown of relations between Sun and Google over the use of Java in Android, and the way in which the resulting situation could have been spun into a shining asset for a buyer of Sun - especially a giant, litigious one.

Since leaving Oracle, Sun’s CEO, Jonathan Schwartz has described the horse trading around patents which Sun got into. Both Apple and Microsoft came asking for money for patents they thought Sun had infringed - and in each case, Schwartz countered with technology on which Sun could countersue. In most cases patent suits don’t happen at all, because licensing terms, and cross-licensing terms get agreed.

Google’s Android is already under patent attack from Apple: Apple’s suit against HTC is widely seen as a way to get at Android, despite the fact that the operating system is open source. Meanwhile of course Nokia is suing Apple, and Apple is counter-suing.