In its copyright infringement case against Google, Oracle cited several internal emails from Google, claiming that such emails prove that Google was well aware it needed a Java license. However, in a testimony on Thursday, April 19, a Google software engineer defended his employer and said the internal memo was misinterpreted.

In a testimony during the trial in San Francisco, Google software engineer Tim Lindholm said that when he wrote the email back in 2010 that "we need a license for Java" he did not refer to a license from Sun Microsystems, Java's creator. In fact, he said that "it was not specifically a license from anybody." Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems in early 2010, and filed the suit against Google, alleging that the Android mobile phone software infringes on patents and copyrights associated with Java.

Key Evidence in the Trial

During the litigation, Oracle has focused on Lindholm's email, in which the engineer wrote there are no good alternatives to Java for Android, and Google should obtain a license for Java. "What we've actually been asked to do (by Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin]) is to investigate what technical alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome," Lindholm wrote in an August 2010 email. "We've been over a bunch of these, and think they all suck. We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need."

Oracle's attorney asked the engineer whether in his email he meant that Google needed to obtain a license from Sun specifically. "This is not what I meant," replied Lindholm, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The Oracle attorney went on to ask him whether he had meant Google should have obtained a license from some other company. "It was not specifically a license from anybody," testified Lindholm.

Oracle Attorney Confronts Page with the Email

Google co-founder Larry Page was also called to the stand by Oracle, and shown the email in question. Page said he could not recall whether Lindholm had recommended that the company obtain a license for Java, nor could he recall giving Lindholm any directions in regards to Java.

Lindholm was actually a Sun employee until 2005, before joining Google, and back in the 1990s he was among the original Java developers. Later in his testimony, the former Sun engineer added that Google and Sun were in talks about a co-development agreement, which would allow Google to use Sun's source code as a foundation for work on Android. "In that agreement a license would have been necessary," Lindholm said, as reported by Bloomberg BusinessWeek. According to Lindholm, he played "no substantial role" in the development of Android, but instead he has focused on the operation of Google's many data centers.

Lindholm added that at a certain point he was involved in Java licensing and partnership discussions between Google and Sun, due to his background with Java and Sun. Those negotiations did not lead to any licensing agreement or partnership.

Oracle is seeking $1 billion in damages, as well as a court order that would block distribution of Android unless Google obtains a license. The case is Oracle America Inc. v. Google Inc., 10-03561, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

(reported Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Dave Clark)