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The biggest issue for Oracle is that Sun's previous CEO publicly congratulated Google about Android: http://beust.com/weblog/2010/08/12/oracle-is-suing-google-

• btilly 16y ago
  Intellectual property divides into 3 fields with 3 different sets of rules. Anything you learn about how copyrights, trademarks and patents work is more likely than not to be wrong about the other two. You're thinking trademark law. This lawsuit is under patent law. It doesn't matter what Jonathan Schwartz publicly said.
  • _delirium 16y ago
    It's not as strong as with trademark law, but patent law does have some notion of estoppel--- if you know someone is using a patent of yours, and publicly congratulate them for it, and then years later turn around and sue them, your job in pulling off the U-turn is at least a bit harder. Among other things, they can argue detrimental reliance on your public acquiescence to their usage.