When it began last month, the Oracle vs Google legal hearing over alleged Java copyright and patent violations in Android had been split into three phases; copyright liability, patent claims and damages.
Still in deliberation over the copyright phase, the jury had been granted the weekend to come to a decision over the matter where, the group states that it has reached a unanimous verdict on all but one of the questions posed to it. Should the jury not reach a unanimous decision on all of the points, the judge agreed to allow a partial verdict in order to move on to the next phase of the trial.
Before sending the jury out on Friday, Judge Alsup read from a sealed Google document containing profit and loss figures for Android in 2010. According to the judge, Android made Google a loss in every quarter of 2010, "That adds up to a big loss for the whole year," he stated, revealing for the first time Android's lack of profitability, potentially deflating Oracle claims that Google profited from its alleged infringement of Java copyrights and patents.
Whilst the judge's revelation should have no impact on the jury's verdict, it may very well have an impact on the level of compensation that Oracle may be able to claim, should it ultimately win the trial.
