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Oracle demands $2.6 billion from Google

In a court document, Oracle specifies the amount it's seeking in damages from Google in its Java patent-infringement lawsuit filed last summer.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
Lance Whitney
2 min read

Oracle is seeking $2.6 billion in damages from Google as part of its patent infringement lawsuit over Java.

In a document filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Oracle cited the $2.6 billion figure based on estimates by the company's damages expert, Iain Cockburn, a professor of finance and economics at Boston University.

That specific figure runs contrary to Google's interpretation, which is far broader in range. In a June 18 filing from Google and documented by FOSS Patents, the search giant came to the conclusion that if it were to lose the lawsuit, it would owe Oracle anywhere from $1.4 billion and $6.1 billion.

In its latest court filing, Oracle denied the range cited by Google, according to FOSS Patents.

"Google falsely claims that Prof. Cockburn concludes that Oracle is owed anywhere from $1.4 to $6.1 billion in damages," Oracle's court filing said. "He does not. His opinion is that the total damages that should be awarded to Oracle is $2.6 billion."

Google did not immediately return CNET's request for comment.

Filed last August, Oracle's suit claims that Google has infringed on Java copyrights and patents by using code related to the programming language in Android. Oracle acquired Java when it officially purchased Sun Microsystems in early 2010.

The amount in damages has been a point of contention between the two companies. A court filing released on June 16 revealed for the first time that Oracle was seeking damages in the billions. But Google had earlier asserted that such estimates were inaccurate.

"Oracle's 'methodology' for calculating damages is based on fundamental legal errors and improperly inflates their estimates," Google said in a statement sent to CNET at the time.

A trial could start as soon as November, according to Reuters.