A few months ago, we wrote about the ongoing patent infringement lawsuit filed by Oracle Corp. against competitor Google Inc. After several months of conflicting court motions, the CEOs of each company were ordered to appear before a federal court magistrate in San Jose, in hopes that the pair could reach a settlement in their ongoing business litigation and avoid a lengthy jury trial.

Oracle originally sued Google in 2010, alleging that Google's popular Android smartphone operating system infringed on a number of Oracle's patents for the Java programming language. Oracle acquired Java when the company purchased Sun Microsystems at the beginning of 2010, and it has already demonstrated that it will aggressively defend the profitable product with several such lawsuits.

But Google also has a lot to lose. One potential resolution of the lawsuit is the creation of a royalty fee, payable from Google to Oracle, for every Android-equipped smartphone sold. With over 500,000 Android devices activated every single day, those fees will add up quickly.

Both companies have received harsh words from U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who has been overseeing the business litigation. In a July 22 order, Alsup dismissed Oracle's claim that it had suffered over $6 billion in damages due to Google's unauthorized use of Java technology, calling the claim "wishful thinking." In that same July order, Alsup accused Google of "Soviet-style negotiation" for its suggestion that Oracle should receive a royalty of just $100 million.

Now, the companies' CEOs are appearing before a federal court magistrate in California, who will hopefully help the parties reach a settlement that is beneficial to both parties. We will update our blog with any new developments.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek, "Google-Oracle Court Meeting May End Dispute Over Android," Sept. 19, 2011