Larry v. Larry: No Deal for Google and Oracle

Google founder and chief executive Larry Page and Oracle's founder and chief Larry Ellison failed to come to a settlement in a patent infringement lawsuit on Monday, so they will meet again in court Wednesday.

Oracle sued Google for the use of its Java-related patents, which it acquired in 2010 when it purchased Sun Microsystems. As we reported earlier, Google had grown used to Sun's laissez faire attitude about intellectual property and were surprised when Oracle purchased the company and began issuing lawsuits. Both Page and Ellison were in court because they were issued a court order by Paul S. Grewal, the presiding judge from U.S. District Court, in hopes the two executives could come to an agreement.

However, that didn't happen and both Page and Ellison are similarly ordered back to court on Wednesday and will have subsequent meetings until Sept. 30, according to Bloomberg. A trial in the patent infringement case is set for Oct. 30.

Both Google and Oracle have come *thisclose* to settling, but have lacked follow-through, something Oracle's own lawyers said in a court filing. Perhaps these meetings in close quarters may be the nudge that both companies need to finally reach a settlement and avoid a costly trial, but we doubt that either party will bend on the first or second meeting.

Contact Us