The world is such a sad place. Due to the recent patent law suit by Oracle against Android, Google is opting out of the JavaOne conference scheduled for September 19 through 23. Google was going to be a major participant in several sessions. Google has said it is proud to be a part of the open source Java community. However, they will not back down from a law suit that they feel is baseless. Google commented that:
We are disappointed Oracle has chosen to attack both Google and the open-source Java community with this baseless lawsuit. The open-source Java community goes beyond any one corporation and works every day to make the web a better place. We will strongly defend open-source standards and will continue to work with the industry to develop the Android platform.
This lawsuit comes as Android is at its highest. They have outsold their competitors for the first time in the United States.Oracle purchased Sun for about $5 billion and many think the deal was completed so that Oracle could go after the search giant in the courts.Sun did open source parts of Java but other parts were still under their control. Sun also went after Microsoft for their use of Java and it ended up costing Microsoft about $1 billion.
As far as the JavaOne conference, Google is disappointed that it will not be represented. Joshua Bloch is from the Open Source Programs Office and he told Reuters:
We wish that we could [present at the show], but Oracle’s recent lawsuit against Google and open source has made it impossible for us to freely share our thoughts about the future of Java and open source generally. This is a painful realization for us, as we’ve participated in every JavaOne since 2004, and I personally have spoken at all but the first in 1996.
Patent lawsuits in the mobile industry have picked up over the recent years. I expect this one to last a very long time. Unfortunately, it will probably end in a settlement.