The Oracle corporation was dealt a major blow in their attempts to leverage their patent portfolio into a sledgehammer against innovation yesterday when a San Francisco jury ruled that Android did not infringe on two of Oracle’s patents.
The suit, filed by Oracle, sought an injunction against Google using two techniques patented by Sun Microsystems employee and father of Java, James Gosling. Oracle obtained the patents when it purchased Sun in 2009.
The patent phase of the trial followed a copyright phase where a partial verdict hung on the novel and somewhat chilling premise that it’s possible to copyright an API.