USPTO rejects Oracle’s patent claim on Google Android

The United States Patent and Trademark office delivered a final rejection to Google at the expense of Oracle.

According to Groklaw, the USPTO issued the rejection Dec. 20 in the reexamination of Oracle’s U.S. Patent No. 6,192,476. Each claim of the patent was subject to reexamination, including Claim 14, which was the only claim asserted by Oracle in the litigation.

The USPTO rejected 17 of the 21 claims in the patent of discussion, including seven of the patent’s independent claims. Any response by Oracle seeking an appeal or reconsideration of this action is due Feb. 20.

Continue reading past the break for more background information on the Oracle vs. Google patent claims.

Oracle, a database software giant based in Redwood City, Calif., sued Google in August 2010, and alleged the Android operating system violated a number of patents and copyrights within Java, which Oracle acquired through Sun Microsystems. Android currently runs on more than 150 million mobile devices. Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., has denied the claims.

According to FOSS Patents, Oracle claimed “irreparable harm” caused to Java due to the “continued migration of device manufacturers and application developers from Java to Android.” The company requested the patent trial start Jan. 20 or Jan. 23, after the Jan. 19 submission of an expert’s damages report.

Meanwhile, Google released a joint statement claiming it had “no interest in delaying resolution of this case any longer than necessary,” but a January start was not probable. The search engine cited scheduling issues and contended it would be difficult to “conduct trial before July 2012.”