Report: Oracle ordered to pay Google over $1M for legal expenses accrued during suit

A jury decided earlier this summer that Google did not infringe upon Oracle’s patents, but it has now come to light that Oracle must pay $1,130,350 to Google for its steep legal fees accrued during the lengthy lawsuit and trial.

Oracle, a database software giant based in Redwood City, Calif., sued Google in August 2010, while alleging the Android operating system violated a number of patents and copyrights within Java, which Oracle acquired through Sun Microsystems. Android currently powers more than 150 million mobile devices. Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., adamantly denied Oracle’s contention, and claimed the Android team was unaware of Sun’s patents before the suit.

Oracle, of course, did not succeed in landing a $6 billion settlement from Google, but it did win the responsibility of paying Google’s legal expenses. Google first asked for over $4 million, according to legal news website Groklaw, but Judge William Aslup recently reduced that amount significantly.

The Google vs. Oracle drama stretched into weeks with much interesting news unveiling along the way. Chairman Eric Schmidt gave a sarcasm-riddled testimony, and Android’s founder Andy Rubin even took the stand to reveal a slide deck with Google’s ambitions to sell 10 million Android tablets during 2011.

Judge Aslup even required both companies to reveal a list of bloggers and journalists paid for commentary during the course of the trial, in which Google admitted to using Stanford professor Mark Lemly as a commentator on unrelated cases. Oracle, on the other hand, disclosed a controversial relationship with patent guru Florian Mueller.

Related articles

• Judge orders Google, Oracle to disclose payments made to bloggers (9to5google.com)
• Google discloses paid bloggers to judge in Oracle case, lists Stanford prof. Mark Lemley as ‘outside counsel’ (9to5google.com)
• Google demands Oracle pay its $4M in court costs (9to5google.com)
• Almost comical, unintended consequence of of Apple’s patent win(9to5google.com)

Groklaw noted the inquiry into the use of paid commentary also ended, as Judge Aslup said the court will take no further action regarding ” the subject of payments by the litigants to commentators and journalists.” He also reassured both sides that “no commentary has in any way influenced the Court’s orders and ruling herein save and except for any treatise or article expressly cited in an order or ruling.”

One of the most interesting aspects to today’s news is the legal paperwork (Groklaw: 1241, 1242) from the court order that quotes the judge as scolding Oracle. Judge Aslup told Google it is the “prevailing party” in the case, while adding Oracle’s lawyers “crafted overreaching claims.”

[via The Verge]