[JURIST] A jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] failed to reach a conclusion Monday in a copyright dispute between Oracle and Google [corporate websites]. Oracle has alleged that Google’s use of Java in its Android OS violates Oracle’s patents and copyrights, seeking up to $1 billion in damages. While the jury did find for Oracle in a partial verdict, they remained deadlocked [AP report] on the issue of whether Google’s use could be considered “fair use,” making it difficult for Oracle to win a large damage award. Google is moving for a mistrial. The trial will now move to a second phase in which the same jury will consider other patent claims.

The case went to trial [JURIST report] last month after settlement negotiations broke down. In addition to defending against patent claims, Google has also been under fire recently regarding its new privacy policy [JURIST news archive], which came into effect in March. EU data authorities are concerned [JURIST report] about the sharing and combination of personal data across services and its compliance with European data protection legislation.