At the end of the fourth week of the Google vs Oracle patent dispute trial, Judge William Alsup said he may remove the third and final phase of the trial that covers damages. Alsup recently seemed frustrated over the two companies bringing in representative who expressed the same message as the company.

The final phase would determine if Google has to pay Oracle for copyright and patent infringement. Judge Alsup said to Google and Oracle that they should find a way to streamline the trial, and said the potential damages Google could pay to Oracle are becoming smaller to the point where a third phase could be unnecessary, Wired reported.

While Google agreed, the company hasn't yet filed for the trial to be shortened.

The copyright phase was ruled with a partial verdict, while only two patents are being disputed. Oracle lead counsel Mike Jacobs said he and his team needed to review the trial before deciding whether the damages phase should go ahead.

During this week, from May 6, Oracle claimed Google created a virtual machine - called Dalvik - for Java use and effectively ripped off the patents. On May 6, the jury found Google infringed on the overall structure, sequence and organization of copyrighted material which included 37 APIs used by Java. The jury didn't decide whether that was considered fair use under law. Google said the trial couldn't proceed without a ruling on fair use and filed for a mistrial - an error in the trial.

The jury found Google infringed on Oracle's copyrights through nine lines of code, though the lack of ruling on fair use meant Oracle could not claim infringement. If the case is retired, the decision could be appealed.

(reported by Jonathan Charles, edited by Dave Clark)