Google v. Oracle essay

The way in which Google is competing against Apple in the smart phone race is through a phone operating system known as Android.  This operating system combined with phones created from different manufacturers like Motorola and HTC make up for one of the leading competitors the Iphone has.  However, as stated, Google’s Android system has been directly and indirectly targeted for patent violations as of late.  Directly with the claims filed by software company Oracle.  Android’s operating system utilizes certain aspects of a programming language known as Java, which was developed by Sun Systems who is now owned and controlled by Oracle.  The software company is suing Google “seeking a court ruling that would ban further use of its intellectual property and force the destruction of all products that violate Java-related copyrights on the code, documentation and specifications” (Bloomberg, 2011).  Google contends that the patents that Oracle is citing in their suit are not only invalid, but any users of their platform have a license to any patents named.  Should Oracle get their way, there would be a tremendous blow to the Android platform and the phones themselves as this would call for the company to come up with an operating system that was void of Java or any other Oracle owned technology.  In addition to the software meeting patent and intellectual property obstacles, the hardware that Google’s OS has been tied to is meeting resistance as well.



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