This was bound to happen, of course. Things were going too well. At a time when Google is activating 200,000 Android phones a day, and Android has overtaken the iPhone in terms of U.S. market share, Oracle decided to drop the bomb:
Oracle today filed a complaint for patent and copyright infringement against Google, Inc.
"In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement," said Oracle spokesperson Karen Tillman.
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The complaint [.pdf] offers slightly more detail, including the patents that Oracle claims Google has infringed upon. It also spells out what the company wants:
A. Entry of judgment holding Google liable for infringement of the patents and
copyrights at issue in this litigation;
B. An order permanently enjoining Google, its officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys and affiliated companies, its assigns and successors in interest, and those persons in active concert or participation with it, from continued acts of infringement of the patents and copyrights at issue in this litigation;
C. An order that all copies made or used in violation of Oracle America’s copyrights, and all means by which such copies may be reproduced, be impounded and destroyed or otherwise reasonably disposed of;
That last demand -- that all copies of Android, including, presumably, the ones in our phones, must be impounded and destroyed -- raises the obvious question: what exactly is Oracle after here? That particular issue has been explored with commendable thoroughness by Stephen O'Grady, who concludes:
