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Jury finds Google Android didn't violate Oracle's patents

A 10-person federal jury has found unanimously that Google didn't infringe on Oracle's patents when developing the Android mobile operating system.

The jury's ruling was issued on Wednesday in a San Francisco courtroom, according to Bloomberg. Because Google was not found to be infringing upon Oracle's patents, the jury was immediately dismissed and the third phase of the trial, which would have dealt with damages, was canceled.

Oracle has sought $1 billion in damages for intellectual property theft, and argued in court that Google violated two patented inventions from the Java programming language when it developed the Android platform. The jury previously determined two weeks ago that Google did infringe on Oracle's Java copyrights by using nine lines of rangeCheck, but couldn't agree on whether that was considered "fair use."

Judge William Alsup must still rule on whether the previous infringement found by the jury is valid, as there is a question as to whether the Java application programming interfaces can be copyrighted. The Verge said it is unknown when the judge will make his final decision on the issue, though he does plan to take off the next two days for personal reasons.

If Alsup determines that the structure, sequence and organization of 37 Java APIs are not covered under copyright law, Oracle will receive statutory damages at a maximum of $150,000 per count. But if they are covered under copyright, all three infringement counts found by the jury would be bundled together to be addressed with a new trial, or in appeals court.

Oracle signaled on Wednesday that it plans to continue its legal assault against Google regardless of Wednesday's decision. The company said it presented "overwhelming evidence" in the trial to show that Google "knew it would fragment and damage Java."

"We plan to continue to defend and uphold Java's core write once run anywhere principle and ensure it is protected for the nine million Java developers and the community that depend on Java compatibility," Oracle's statement reads.