Google Taps Java Guru Gosling Amid Lawsuit With Oracle

Google Inc. (GOOG), which is squaring off in court against Oracle Corp. (ORCL) over allegations that its Android software infringes on Oracle's Java technology, has hired the high-profile engineer known as the father of Java.

James Gosling wrote on his personal blog that his first day of work at Mountain View, Calif.-based Google was Monday.

Gosling previously worked for decades at Sun Microsystems, the once-mighty technology giant that was acquired last year by Oracle for $5.6 billion.

While with Sun, Gosling oversaw development of Java, a technology that emerged in the 1990s and was widely adopted by companies. Gosling left the company last year, after the acquisition by Oracle was closed.

Google has been on a hiring binge of late, with plans to set a company record for new hires this year. Among its recent, notable hires are networking expert Milo Medin, and former Sun engineer Tim Bray, who joined to work on the development of Android.

On his blog Monday, Gosling wrote that, "I find it odd that this time I'm taking the road more traveled by, but it looks like interesting fun with huge leverage. I don't know what I'll be working on. I expect it'll be a bit of everything."

Since leaving Oracle following its purchase of Sun, Gosling has generally been critical of the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based business software giant. "As to why I left, it's difficult to answer: Just about anything I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good," Gosling wrote last year.

Oracle sued Google in August, alleging that Android, which is widely used to run mobile devices, infringes on intellectual property related to Java.

In a blog post in August, Gosling wrote that Oracle's lawsuit was "not a big surprise.

"During the integration meetings between Sun and Oracle where we were being grilled about the patent situation between Sun and Google, we could see the Oracle lawyer's eyes sparkle," Gosling wrote, adding that, "Filing patent suits was never in Sun's genetic code."

It is unclear whether the case will come to trial, or what role Gosling might play in the proceedings, if any.

In a filing last month, an attorney representing Oracle in the matter wrote that the company has identified 14 registered copyrights that Google has infringed. "Moreover, when we take depositions of Google's developers, we anticipate uncovering the full scope of Google's copying," the attorney wrote.

An Oracle spokeswoman declined to comment. A Google spokesman also declined to comment, apart from confirming Gosling's hiring.

Google has called Oracle's lawsuit "baseless," and an attack both on Google "and the open-source Java community."

Oracle isn't the only company to target Android, which is open source technology and therefore built with contributions from a community of outside engineers, either directly or indirectly with intellectual property litigation.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has sued Motorola (MMI) and Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) over their use of Android, while Apple Inc. (AAPL) has also sued Motorola over devices that make use of the technology.

-John Letzing; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

Marcus and Millichap (NYSE:MMI)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2024 to Nov 2024