• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 16, 2010

With Oracle Corp. suing Google for patent and copyright infringement over its use of Java software in Android, the stage is set for a battle of true Silicon Valley superpowers. Depending on how much they want to spend on litigation, it could be the intellectual property equivalent of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object.

Oracle has enlisted legal heavyweight David Boies, the lawyer who helped the U.S. take on Microsoft in the late 1990s over alleged monopolistic practices in bundling Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system. For its part, Google sounded a defiant tone in a statement issued Friday calling the Oracle lawsuit "a baseless attack" on the developers using open-source Java.

"We will strongly defend open-source standards and will continue to work with the industry to develop the Android platform," the search giant vowed in a statement. The legal broadside comes just as recent reports show that Android in the second quarter became the top-selling smartphone OS in the U.S.

The company's statement might be written off as a boilerplate response, but Google has a habit of not backing down from a legal fight, and not losing in court. (See Viacom v. Google, Rosetta Stone v. Google, Geico v. Google.) In the Viacom case alone, Google spent $100 million to defend itself against copyright claims involving YouTube before the $1 billion suit even went to trial.

No one knows how the Oracle case will play out, of course. Technology analysts have pointed out that patent and copyright claims in Silicon Valley are volleyed back and forth like tennis balls as a standard part of doing business. But a quick patent cross-licensing deal to settle the dispute doesn't seem likely given the resources and potential intransigence of the two sides over Google's use of Java in Android.

"These types of skirmishes happen every day. Most don't make it to court and the ones that do are typically handled quickly," noted Gartner analyst Mark Driver, in a recent blog post. "But this one involve two MEGA vendors over the disposition of the IT industry predominant platform for application development that spans from smart phones to mainframes."

One company that may be enjoying the prospect of a protracted legal struggle between Oracle and Google is Apple. To the extent the litigation interferes with the proliferation of Android or distracts Google from its push into mobile, it could work in Apple's favor. In the first quarter, Android surpassed Apple's iOS in U.S. market share among smartphone platforms.

Apple in March filed its own patent infringement suit against manufacturer HTC Corp., which uses Android in multiple smartphones including the Droid Incredible.

For his part, Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at technology consulting firm Creative Strategies, doesn't expect Apple to gain much even indirectly from the Oracle-Google clash. "Ultimately it will have no impact on Apple, as it seems that Oracle really wants some type of licensing deal for some of its intellectual property," he said. "The Android train has left the station and I don't see anything that can stop its forward progress."

He added that the stakes are too high for Google not to compromise, since Android is the vehicle it will ride for mobile search and ads.

Gartner's Driver sees Oracle as the big loser, whatever the outcome. He argues that if the database company wins, it will send a strong message that Java isn't as open as assumed. If it loses, then other companies licensing Java will ask why they have to if Google doesn't.

"It will establish a precedent for independent versions of Java and effectively minimize if not downright nullify Oracle's stewardship of Java over the long term," he wrote. Stay tuned.