Oracle changes legal strategy in IP claim against Google

Oracle has offered to drop its patent charges against Google and rely only on copyright infringement, if the court will hear the copyright complaints quickly.

In a filing made January 17, Oracle lays out three proposals to move the case forward:

• Oracle initially asks that the court "sever and stay" the patent claims and set a trial date on the copyright claims soon, in winter or spring this year. During the time the copyright claims are at trial, Oracle could work on its third attempt at a damages estimate, one of the current holdups in the case. The court could then try the patent charges, writes Nancy Gohring of  infoworld.com.
• If the judge doesn't like that idea, Oracle's lawyers asked the court to dismiss the patent charges without prejudice, thus allowing Oracle to proceed with the copyright claims and potentially file a new patent infringement case in the future, and
• If the court neither stays nor dismisses the patent claims, Oracle would ask for a trial date in the next few months on both the copyright and the patent claims.

Bloggers in the field have called the move “bold” and indicative of Oracle’s frustration over the lawsuit’s delays. BVLaw Alert agrees that the move is unusual, but with the possibility of bringing patentclaims later, perhaps going with your strongest play now is the best call, and the “audible” reference is apt after all.