Judge may force Oracle, Google into settlement talks
updated 11:05 pm EDT, Fri September 2, 2011
Oracle and Google may spend 2 days settling case
Oracle and Google may have no choice but to spend one to two days doing nothing but negotiating a settlement in Oracle's ongoing lawsuit over Java use in Android. Judge William Alsup said he was "inclined' to make the two discuss a deal in front of a federal Magistrate Judge with their "top executive officers," possibly involving Oracle chief Larry Ellison and his Google counterpart Larry Page. Lawyers for both teams had until September 7 to comment and pick relevant leaders for talks.
Alsup made the comments after showing frustration with the two companies asking to skip court mediation for a private outlet, only to encounter roadblocks.
Neither side is likely to concede. Oracle has been eager to extract as much of a penalty as possible and was asked to scale back. Google, meanwhile, knows that licensing Java from Oracle could be prohibitively expensive even with lowered terms and may aim for as low a lump-sum payment it can manage.
A trial could tentatively start in late October. If it goes ahead without a settlement, Oracle already has an edge as it can make CEO Larry Page testify on when and how Java came into Android. [via Florian Mueller]
