Patent Reexamination Has Arrived for Both Parties - Oracle v. Google

Judge Alsup has ordered the Oracle v. Google trial start on April 16. As noted in my blog post on March 12, reexamination has reduced both Oracle's patent case and the advantage of having Mr. Boies as the trial lawyer.

As I stated, Oracle has agreed to withdraw three patents if  they remain rejected when the trial starts. That's about one month for Oracle to get the "final" rejections withdrawn. It's possible but difficult to achieve. Of course, Oracle could appeal the final rejection to the Board of Patent Appeals, but this seems unlikely. Thus, Oracle's lawsuit is based on just two patents and its copyright infringement claim.

Judge Alsup seems to be tough on Oracle at times, but the start date is what Oracle wanted. Further, Judge Alsup believes that streamlining the trial is good for both parties. Thus, Judge Alsup ordered:

"Google is hereby encouraged to withdraw its invalidity defenses that have failed in the reexamination ... to further streamline the trial on the two patents remaining in suit."

Reexamination has become a two-edged sword in this case. If you are a patent owner and suffer rejection of all infringed claims before trial you won't be able to turn that around. And if you are a defendant and you lose on invalidity in reexamination, you will be forced to drop invalidity defenses at trial.

Copyright © 2012 Robert Moll. All rights reserved.