Oracle vs Google: Jury to hear closing arguments of $9 billion case today

The on-going Oracle vs Google lawsuit that amounts up to $9 billion will move a notch closer to the verdict today. Presentation of evidence in the trial ended on May 20, and the jury was sent home. Today, the jury members will come back to hear closing arguments and begin their deliberations. The Oracle vs Google courtroom drama started in way back in 2010, a year after Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems and along with it the rights to Java patents. It began initially as a copyright infringement case and Oracle sued Google over its use of 37 Java APIs in its Android OS. In 2012, a jury in a District Court ruled in favour of Google, following which the case was sent up to an appeals court and was reversed and then appealed to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. In the saga that continues, the tech titans are back, fighting it out again. This time the bone of contention is the ‘fair use’. The debate rages on between the two whether Google’s coding of Android falls under fair use of Oracle’s property. Oracle stands to gain $9 billion from Google if the court rules in their favour. Read the arguments that lawyers from both the sides put up here . The case has seen a volley of arguments and rebuttals from both parties vehemently standing their ground. The real loss here though has been to the software industry. Developers might now think twice about using open source – killing a major chunk of innovation in the business.