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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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At Least Make an Effort,|Fed-Up Judge Tells Google

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The federal judge in the dragging war over smartphones ordered Google to be more forthcoming with the names of people it paid to publicize the case.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered Google and its adversary, Oracle, to list the names of anyone who might have written about the landmark case while on their payrolls.

Oracle reported last week that it hired a blogger as a consultant during the two-year trial, but Google denied having paid anyone to write about the case and then proceeded to list potentially implicated "general categories of individuals and organizations."

On Monday, Alsup told Google attorneys that they failed to comply with his order, and gave them until noon on Aug. 24 to come up with a proper list.

"Google suggests that it has paid so many commenters that it will be impossible to list them all," Alsup wrote. "Please simply do your best but the impossible is not required."

"Oracle managed to do it. Google can do it too by listing all commenters known by Google to have received payments as consultants, contractors, vendors or employees," he added.

"Again, Google need only disclose those commenters that can be identified after a reasonably diligent search. Oracle must supplement its list if this order clarifies any issue for Oracle," the judge concluded.

A hearing on other pending matters, including Google's $4 million demand for attorneys' fees, is set for Aug. 23.

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