James Gosling has a great deal of his life invested in Java. He is considered the father of the programming language, which was launched by Sun in 1995 and runs on billions of digital devices, and is currently at the center of a contentious legal battle between Oracle and Google. Up until Saturday night — when …

Last updated August 29, 3:30 AM PT, with a correction on Java inventor James Gosling’s view on the suit, and an additional quote from former Sun chief open source officer Simon Phipps.  In the two weeks that the Oracle v. Google trial has been under way, it’s become clear that Sun’s top executives weren’t unified in their thinking about whether Java could …

Jonathan Schwartz (Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET) Last Updated: 4:29 PM PT  SAN FRANCISCO — Former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz took the stand here today as a witness for the defense, and disputed Oracle’s claim that Java APIs were proprietary code from Sun.  Google’s lawyer, Robert van Nest, asked Schwartz whether, during his tenure at Sun, Java APIs were considered proprietary or …

During the Oracle v. Google trial, the value of the Android platform to the Internet giant has been a subject of inquiry. When Google CEO and co-founderLarry Page was asked last week by Oracle’s attorney David Boies about the value of Android, he responded that Android is “important, but not critical.”  On Wednesday, Google’s head of the Android platform, Andy Rubin, was …

SAN FRANCISCO — In Wednesday’s episode of the Oracle-Google trial at U.S. District Court here., a November 2006 presentation outlining a vision and plan for a Google phone came into evidence. Related stories Android chief: We didn’t believe we needed a license from Sun Google’s Andy Rubin dodges David Boies’ bullets Images: Oracle, Google chiefs on witness stand Oracle, Google …

As part of its suit against Google, Oracle accused the search giant of violating seven patents covering Java technology with its Android platform. Five of the patents were dropped from the case upon reexamination by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO).  On April 22, patent No. 5,966,702 was validated by the USPTO and Oracle requested that it be allowed into the …

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt was Oracle’s final witness for the API copyright phase of the trial, in which Oracle is seeking $1 billion in damages, and the first witness as Google began its defense. Oracle lawyer David Boies focused his questioning of Schmidt on Google’s apparent ongoing concern, expressed in e-mails and documents, about whether the company needed to …

SAN FRANCISCO — After a brief encounter yesterday afternoon here at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Oracle’s lead attorney David Boies continued his carefully crafted interrogation of Google’s Android chief Andy Rubin. Boies placed about 40 documents in evidence to lay an intricate trail that he hopes will give the jury the impression that Rubin and Google knew …

Last updated: 9:30 PM PT  As the second week of the Oracle-Google trial got underway Monday, Andy Rubin, the man behind the Android platform, took his turn on the witness stand. Oracle’s lead lawyer, David Boies, quickly got to his main point in taking Rubin through a series of emails from 2005 and 2006.  He established that Rubin knew that …

As the second week of the Oracle-Google trial got underway Monday, Judge William Alsup continued to probe the depths of Java and Android APIs and copyright law. Prior to the jury entering the courtroom, Alsup asked the Google team whether Google admitted that it copied the 37 APIs at the center of the lawsuit. “I quibble with the word “copy,” …