The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, alleged that Google violated Oracle’s copyrights and patents related to Java with the Dalvik Java virtual machine code that’s part of the Android operating system. “The Android operating system software ‘stack’ consists of Java applications running on a Java-based object-oriented application framework, and core libraries running on a ‘Dalvik’ virtual machine that features just-in-time compilation,” the filing says.
The suit goes on to claim “On information and belief, 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.”
The lawsuit could turn into a headache for Google since the company is actively working to expand the Android user base in the smartphone market. Some product developers could take a wait-and-see stance, or could slow down product development, while the case plays out to make sure they don’t become targets of Oracle’s legal department, too.
Oracle is looking to block Google from continuing to infringe on its patents and copyrights, and is also asking the court for damages.
Google has not yet commented on the pending litigation.