Oracle has agreed to accept zero dollars worth of damages from Google, three weeks after losing the major portions of the case in which Oracle accused Google of violating Java patents and copyrights in Android.

After one partial victory on the issue of whether Google infringed copyrights, Oracle lost its argument that Google violated patents. Oracle then lost a ruling that held that the structure of the Java APIs asserted by the company couldn't be copyrighted at all. The rulings left Oracle little room except to appeal, and today in court the two sides agreed to a damages total of "zero." That's only a few billion less than Oracle originally sought.

Oracle could have sought damages for the small amount of code copying Google was found guilty of, but it chose not to. A stipulation and proposed order that Oracle and Google submitted to Judge William Alsup in US District Court in San Francisco today called for $0 of damages "related to Google’s infringement of Oracle’s copyrights in connection with (1) the rangeCheck code in TimSort.java and ComparableTimSort.java, and (2) the eight decompiled files (seven 'Impl.java' files and one 'ACL' file)."

Upon seeing the proposal, Judge Alsup asked, "Is there a catch I need to be aware of?" according to on-scene reporting by the IDG News Service. Oracle has said it will appeal the bigger claims in the case to the Federal Circuit appeals court. The move today appears to be Oracle waiving its rights to damages in order to get the trial over and move on to the appeal. When asked by Alsup when the parties would be in court again, Oracle attorney Michael Jacobs said, "I hope we see you again after an appeal"—drawing a few laughs from those in attendance. If Oracle were to win its appeal, parts of the case could go in front of Alsup once again.