A federal judge said Oracle can?t seek $1 billion in
damages from Google for infringing copyrights when it
developed Android software because a jury couldn?t agree
on whether it was "fair use."
The jury in San Francisco were asked to consider four
questions on Oracle's claim that Google violated several
of its patents and copyrights, but could only agree on
three. It found in Google's favour on two of them.
Google was found to have infringed Oracle's copyright on
nine lines of Java code that is in Android.
But Oracle can only seek statutory damages, ranging from
$200 to $150,000.
Google is asking for a mistrial to be declared.
The same jury will now hear evidence in the next phase
of the trial, covering Oracle's allegations that Android
violates two Java patents.
Oracle was asking for $1bn in compensation in one of the
biggest such technology lawsuits to date.