SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison and Google Inc. CEO Larry Page have been ordered to attend a court-supervised attempt to settle a lawsuit over the rights to some of the technology used in the Android operating system that powers millions of cell phones.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal wants Ellison and Page on hand for a Sept. 19 settlement conference in San Jose to ensure all efforts are made to avoid a trial in a case that Oracle filed last year.
Oracle is seeking billions of dollars in royalties and damages for Google's alleged infringement of patents on the Android software that Google has been distributing since 2008.The crux of the lawsuit centers on Android's usage of the Java programming language that Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems Inc. last year.
Oracle sued Google about seven months after the Sun deal closed. Google has denied any wrongdoing and resisted Oracle's demands for licensing fees.
That impasse culminated in the command appearance by a pair of multibillionaires who also rank among Silicon Valley's most compelling figures.
The flamboyant Ellison, 67, has been running Oracle since he co-founded the business software maker in 1997. The taciturn Page, 38, is in his second stint leading Google, the Internet search leader that he co-founded in 1998 with Sergey Brin. Eric Schmidt, a former Sun executive, was Google's CEO during the time Android was being developed.
If Grewal is can't work out a truce with Ellison and Page, a trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 31 before U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco.
The previous settlement negotiations supervised by a private mediator were fruitless.
