Oracle Leads the Charge Against Google’s Experts

(CN) - Google employees "spoon-fed" statements to the company's experts so they could testify helpfully in an upcoming trial that will determine whether Android phones infringe on Oracle's patented Java applications, Oracle argued Wednesday.

Oracle attorney Steven Holtzman called the testimony of Google experts Dr. Gregory Leonard and Dr. Alan Cox "fundamentally subjective and scientifically unsound" and said their reports are contradicted by the record.

"Dr. Leonard's role as scrivener was so ministerial that he simply typed everything he was told by Google employee Brian Swetland straight into his report," Holtzman wrote.

Oracle also claimed that Google's experts did not provide any economic analysis of Google's purported alternatives to Java applications, arguing that Cox had only cited interviews with Google employees.

"Despite Google's uncontroverted documents and testimony admitting that the launch window for Android was critical, Dr. Cox has no analysis of the economic impact of delay as a result of the supposed alternative," Oracle's brief states.

Google said Tuesday that the reports of Drs. Leonard and Cox should remain for the upcoming trial.

"Google has no intention of ... having its experts testify as to 'facts' entirely on the say-so of Google witnesses, without allowing Oracle a fair chance to cross-examine those Google witnesses," attorney Robert Van Nest wrote in Google's opposition.

The fact that the experts did not conduct tests on the Android phone is not a reason to strike their reports, Van Nest added.

In another document filed Wednesday, Oracle pushed for the judge to let a jury decide contested copyright issues.

"Despite being directed to provide specific examples, Google contends it should be given a blanket excuse for its copying because it wanted to make Android's APIs compatible with the 37 Java APIs it copied," attorney Michael Jacobs wrote in a letter to U.S. Judge William Alsup.

An API, or application programming interface, is a software code used to communicate with other applications within a device such as a phone.

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