The federal judge overseeing a major lawsuit over smartphone technology
between Oracle Corp and Google Inc has quietly ended his examination of
those companies' relationships with paid bloggers and other
commentators.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco had
shocked the legal and blogging communities on August 7 by demanding
names of "print or Internet authors, journalists, commentators or
bloggers" on the companies' payrolls.
The judge at the time
expressed concern that payments might have influenced writings about the
case. Legal experts questioned the breadth of the order, including
whether it could violate the writers' First Amendment free speech
rights.
But in an order issued on Tuesday, after Oracle and Google
had submitted lists of names, Alsup said he would "take no further
action regarding the subject of payments by the litigants to
commentators and journalists."
He also said no commentaries had influenced his rulings in the case, other than "any treatise or article" he cited expressly.
Alsup has not revealed what prompted his August 7 order.
Oracle
had sued Google in 2010, claiming that the search engine company's
Android mobile platform infringed its patents and violated its rights to
the Java programming language. It sought $1 billion of damages on its
copyright claims.
A federal jury ruled in Google's favor on May 23.
Android is the world's best-selling smartphone operating system.
The case is Oracle America Inc v. Google Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 10-03561.
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012