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SAN FRANCISCO -- Oracle made its closing statements during the first segment of the Oracle-Google trial this morning, and it all boils down to this: Google is making excuses for taking the property of Sun Microsystems -- and now Oracle -- and using it on Android.

Oracle counsel Michael Jacobs commenced by telling the jury that "this is a trial between large companies over really important business issues," and sometimes the numbers involved have been staggering, whether they refer to the lines of code or dollar amounts in question.

Nevertheless, Jacobs said that there is really only one, … Read more

James Gosling has a great deal of his life invested in Java. He is considered the father of the programming language, which was launched by Sun in 1995 and runs on billions of digital devices, and is currently at the center of a contentious legal battle between Oracle and Google.

Up until Saturday night -- when he wrote that "Google totally slimed Sun" -- the proud father of Java had been fairly moderate in his comments about how Google treated his baby. 

Full coverage: Oracle v. Google

When the lawsuit, claiming that Google had … Read more

The Java SE 6 runtime that has shipped with past versions of OS X and which has been available on-demand for Lion users is the last version that Apple will officially support in OS X, but this does not mean Java for OS X is dead. Java's parent company Oracle has taken up the reins for Java development in OS X, and yesterday announced the first version of the upcoming Java SE 7 runtime for OS X.

This update is good news for Java developers, and for end users who run Java code on Mac systems, as it is … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Following former Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz's eager but sometimes tension-filled appearance on the stand this morning, Sun co-founder Scott McNealy appeared for testimony at the U.S. District Court.

See also: Former Sun CEO: We would have paid Google for Java phone Trial: Former Sun CEO gets into catty fight with Oracle lawyer

McNealy was actually called to the stand by Oracle, even though Google is still in the middle of presenting its case. Google counsel Robert Van Nest stressed to Judge William Alsup that he wanted the jury to know that Google was accommodating … Read more

Last Updated: 4:29 PM PT 

SAN FRANCISCO -- Former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz took the stand here today as a witness for the defense, and disputed Oracle's claim that Java APIs were proprietary code from Sun. 

Google's lawyer, Robert van Nest, asked Schwartz whether, during his tenure at Sun, Java APIs were considered proprietary or protected by Sun.

"No," Schwartz said in explaining the nature of open software. "These are open APIs, and we wanted to bring in more people...we wanted to build the biggest tent and invite as many people … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- In what might be one of the most anticipated appearances of the Oracle-Google trial thus far, former Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz testified on behalf of Google at the U.S. District Court this morning.

See also: Google: Sun, Oracle couldn't bring Android competitors to market

Schwartz served as chief executive officer of Sun from 2006 until 2010. He is now the CEO of San Francisco-based startup CareZone.

Schwartz described eagerly that when Java was initially developed in the mid-1990s, it came about during a time when there was one company "dominating" computing: Microsoft.… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Besides arguing that the Java APIs were free to implement on Android because they are necessary for using the Java language, Google is holding onto another strategy as well.

That would be arguing that Oracle is only suing Google now because it couldn't bring a smartphone platform of its own to market to compete with Android.

Specifically, Google counsel Daniel Purcell focused on the development of full stacks while rolling through witnesses this morning at the U.S. District Court, starting with former Sun Microsystems and Oracle exec Craig Gering.

Purcell sped through a definition of … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- In Wednesday's episode of the Oracle-Google trial at U.S. District Court here., a November 2006 presentation outlining a vision and plan for a Google phone came into evidence.

The company proposed to partner with T-Mobile, with an open-software platform that also allowed users access to Google services, such as search, maps, and Gmail. Google would drive traffic to enable online transactions.

"At Google, we believe we can be successful in transforming the mobile experience -- in the same way we have revolutionized the fixed Internet experience," the company stated in the document.

Google … Read more

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt was Oracle's final witness for the API copyright phase of the trial, in which Oracle is seeking $1 billion in damages, and the first witness as Google began its defense.

Oracle lawyer David Boies focused his questioning of Schmidt on Google's apparent ongoing concern, expressed in e-mails and documents, about whether the company needed to get a license from Sun, despite its alleged "clean room" implementation. Google lawyer Robert Van Nest focused on Schmidt's interaction with his old friends at Sun, who Schmidt testified didn't express any concerns about … Read more