Oracle loses patent ruling in Android case

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued findings on two of Oracle’s Java-related patents at issue in the database giant’s case against Google over the Java virtual machine included in Android. Perhaps most significantly, the USPTO rejected Oracle’s patent claims on U.S. patent number 7,426,720, which has generally been considered one of the most important patents in the case, in part because it’s one of the most-recently issued. The 720 patent won’t expire until 2025, meaning if Google were found to be violating it, Google could be on the hook for more than a decade.