Google's founder and chief executive Larry Page appeared in court in San Francisco yesterday in what's shaping up as probably the most significant battles over smartphone patents and copyright.
Accused by Oracle boss Larry Ellison of creating Google's Android smartphone operating system at the back of his company's intellectual property, Page said he had little knowledge of the inner discussions over whether it needed a licence to take advantage of Oracle's Java programming language.
His appearance came after Ellison testified on Wednesday, when he called Android a "cheap knock-off". Android's Java-based software is installed in 300 million smartphones, and Oracle is claiming US$1 billion ($1.2 billion) in fees and damages from Google.
Oracle's lawyer, David Boies, asked Page: "Wouldn't it has been a contravention of policy for engineers to duplicate copyrighted materials of different companies?"
Page said Google was "very careful about what information we used". He disputed that Android was critical to Google, but said he wouldn't be surprised if Google's board was told that Android is necessary to the corporate.
Oracle offers Java on an open source basis, but while it's free to developers for some uses, it requires a licence in others. Caused by those licensing rules and the complexity of the code, the trial is predicted to last eight weeks.
Google had several Oracle patents struck out and says damages will be not up to US$100 million, although it lost.
- Independent
By Stephen Foley
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