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Oracle and Google now have a trial date for their Android/Java patent trial, though it may not be an auspicious one - Hallowe'en on October 31. Having irritated Judge William Alsup with long winded arguments, both antagonists were dealt initial blows. Google failed to get a later trial date, while Oracle was ordered to rework its damages report, which fails to cite the specific patent licenses at issue.

The database giant claims that Android infringes on patents and copyright included in Java, which it acquired with Sun Microsystems. Its legal attack - the only major Android lawsuit that targets Google directly, rather than its OEM partners - seems designed to increase Oracle's influence over the mobile ecosystem and generate significant revenues.

It has hinted at "multibillion dollar" claims, but patent experts believe its windfall is more likely to come from forcing Google and its partners to pay licensing fees, rather than a major damages award. That could heighten the fears that the cost of using Android on mobile devices is set to soar because of multiple royalties fees. Apple recently won a preliminary ruling that HTC infringes two of its patents in its Android smartphones. If confirmed by the US ITC, that could subject HTC, and other Android players using the same patents, to new charges. Apple is also suing Samsung and Motorola, while Microsoft is chasing royalties for its own Linux related IPR, as used in Android.

Patents analyst Florian Mueller wrote on his Foss Patents blog: "Even though Oracle is likely to arrive at a fairly high damages amount in its damages report 2.0, I believe it's an uphill battle now for the primary Java rights holder to derive a multibillion dollar amount out of this litigation just based on damages. Instead, the profitability of this for Oracle may now depend mostly on the question of whether or not the court grants an injunction, which is increasingly a possibility given what the judge said at a hearing on Thursday. With an injunction, Oracle would have the leverage to negotiate with Google a license deal that could result in a very high per-unit royalty."

Meanwhile, CNET reports that Oracle has wiped an embarrassing series of blog posts written by Sun's former CEO and Java chief Jonathan Schwartz, before the Oracle acquisition. In one, Schwartz praised Google's use of Java in Androi, greeting the 2007 launch of the mobile OS with the words: "Congratulations Google, Red Hat and the Java Community! I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of others from Sun in offering my heartfelt congratulations to Google on the announcement of their new Java/Linux phone platform, Android." Google has included this, and other Schwartz posts, in its defense filings.

Schwartz argued that Google's extensive use of Java gave the Sun platform new momentum in the mobile world, where it has been a ubiquitous presence, but has failed to make the commercial impact once expected, especially on high end products. "Google and the Open Handset Alliance just strapped another set of rockets to the community's momentum - and to the vision defining opportunity across our (and other) planets," Schwartz wrote. "Today is … a massive endorsement of two of the industry's most prolific free software communities, Java and Linux."

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