In May 2016 Google announced that they had been creating apps which would appear on their new low-cost Chromebook. The search giant announced the news at their I/O conference and they showed some Android apps which could make the transition. This was all good news to Google and its fans but not to Oracle, the company that unsuccessfully brought an $8.8 billion lawsuit case against Google.
The company is now pushing for a third trial as they claim they were blindsided by Google’s actions and secret plans. The Java maker filed against Google because they claimed that the company had used some of its Java technology on the Android operating system they developed in-house. In so doing, Google violated copyright laws according to Oracle.
Google managed to fight against the lawsuit by saying that Java was meant for computers only, therefore they could not be found guilty. The company showed that the Android operating system is only meant for smartphones and tablets, therefore, the argument by Oracle did not hold and they were not hurting Oracle in any way. In the first trial, the jury was hung and the second saw the jury judge in favor of Google.
Google apps could be used on Chromebook
But with the news that Google is now planning on releasing apps which can be used on the Chromebook laptops, Oracle now believes that Google was planning on putting Android apps on computers after all, which meant Oracle’s bosses were irked by the news.
Annette Hurst, one of the lawyers for Oracle said that the news that there was going to be Android apps for use on Chromebook laptops came as a shock to the world and to the database creator itself. He was speaking in front of Judge William Alsup.
Google on the other hand, claims that they informed Oracle beforehand about their plans to put Android apps on the Chromebook laptops. One significant part of the expert testimony was the tool created by Google which is called the App Runtime for Chrome. One lawyer said that Oracle knew about the plan to put Android apps on Chromebook but they had clearly chosen not to do so on their own accord.
However, Oracle will clearly continue pushing for a third trial on the basis that Google did not play fair during the first two trials by not revealing plans of such great importance. The fight does not look like it will end anytime soon, especially since one of Google’s defense lawyers admitted under questioning by the judge back in 2012 that Oracle had grounds to bring many lawsuits against Google for many years to come. Android keeps expanding into various fields such as TVs, watches, and cars so the fight is clearly still on.
Both Oracle and Google declined to comment when contacted.
