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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Oracle Expert Made Improper Claims About Google Phones

(CN) - A San Francisco federal judge tossed out part of an expert report that reaches past the original claims to defend claims that Google's Android operating system infringes on Java copyrights owned by Oracle.

Google said John Mitchell's expert report "extends to accused products and infringement theories that were not disclosed in Oracle's April 2011 infringement contentions."

Oracle disclosed its infringement claims last December, and Google challenged those claims two months later. Oracle supplemented its initial claims twice, and Google still said the contentions were inadequate.

The Mitchell report referred to three devices that Oracle had not initially named: the LG Optimus, the HTC Droid Incredible 2 and the Motoral Atrix.

Mitchell claimed the makers of the Google phones "made no changes to the source code that would impact the infringement analysis."

U.S. District Judge William Alsup agreed with Google.

"Even with the intention of relying on circumstantial evidence to prove the similarity of many accused devices, Oracle could have and should have specifically identified all such accused devices," the judge wrote.

Oracle can direct its infringement action only against the products it specifically named in its April disclosure, Alsup said, granting Google's motion to strike as it related to the newly listed phones.

The judge declined, however, to strike the remainder of the expert report because he found it did not allege new infringement theories.

"Just as an accused hammer may later be described as being located in a toolbox, the accused functions disclosed in Oracle's infringement contentions are described more fully in the Mitchell report," Alsup wrote.

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