Oracle yesterday released a short but sweet press release announcing that it was taking legal action against Google in relation to alleged copyright and patent infringements involving Android and Java.
"In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property," said Oracle spokesperson Karen Tillman. "This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement."
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, argues that Google is using Java-derived technologies without proper licensing and as such, claims that Android, and any device running Android, infringes upon one or more of seven patents owned by Oracle. CNet reports that Oracle acquired the patents in question when it bought Sun Microsystems in April of last year.
The suit also points out that Google must have been aware of Sun's patents because the CEO of the search giant, Eric Schmidt, led the team that developed Java at Sun prior to taking on the roll of CEO at Novell.
"Google has been aware of Sun's patent portfolio, including the patents at issue, since the middle of this decade, when Google hired certain former Sun Java engineers," CNet quotes from the suit.
Google says it has not yet been served with the lawsuit, and couldn't comment until it had had time to review it.
