U.S. Patent Office deals Oracle a blow in Java patent fight with Google's Android

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The United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected 17 of the 21 patent claims levied against Google and its Android operating system by Oracle. Oracle had taken Google to court claiming that Google owed Oracle compensation for its use of Java in the Android operating system.

Oracle had based its case on 21 infringement instances of one particular patent. The fourteenth of which was what Oracle asserted against Google. Claim 14 (along with 16 others) has been rejected by the USPTO, but there are still four other claims that Oracle could potentially pursue. Oracle also has until February 20, 2012 to exercise its option to appeal the decision. As is the case with patent lawsuits, it only takes one valid claim to win an entire case, so Google is not out of the thick yet - though things are certainly looking up for the Android developer.

Oracle says that Google owes it $6 billion in compensation for use of Java code in Android. Oracle obtained the rights to the Java code when it purchased Sun Microsystems in 2010. [Groklaw via All Things D]