Court tosses out Oracle's bid to disqualify Java expert

A court in California has declined Oracle's bid to disqualify an expert in its copyright dispute with Google over the use of Java code in the Android mobile operating system.

James Kearl of Brigham Young University was asked by District Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to serve on the case and guide the court on damages, in the event of a liability being found.

But Oracle questioned Kearl's neutrality, charging that he had previously appeared for Samsung in a lawsuit against Apple, when he sided with Google in the case "where the patents at issue involved technology that is part of Android." Samsung makes smartphones that use the Android operating system, and Google agreed to defend and indemnify Samsung in the lawsuit with Apple as to certain aspects of its defense against Apple’s affirmative claims.

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