Larry Ellison was one of the more entertaining speakers at this year's All Things Digital conference, and it's no wonder why. He's a Silicon Valley institution—the longest-reigning leader of any major tech company, heading up Oracle since 1977—and he's got a sense of humor, to boot. Ellison went on, at animated length, about his company's legal battles with Google, HP, and SAP—the kind of sensitive topics that CEOs don't often hold forth about.

When it came to describing Oracle's biggest setback—its recent losses in a copyright and patent lawsuit against Google—Ellison put a wildly positive spin on it all, blowing off his patent loss and suggesting that the inconclusive copyright trial was actually a win.

About halfway through her chat with Ellison, moderator Kara Swisher brought up the fact that Oracle had ongoing legal spats with no less than three big tech companies—SAP and Hewlett-Packard, in addition to Google. "Which one would you like to discuss?" she asked.

"Well, none of them," said Ellison. "They're all being litigated right now."

Then Ellison went ahead and spoke, at some length, about all three of the cases. He started with Google.

"I wouldn't describe it as a patent case," he said of that lawsuit, glossing over Oracle's total loss in the trial's patent phase. "It's really a copyright case."

"Are you going to appeal it?" Swisher asked.

Ellison didn't answer directly, but offered an interpretation of what had happened in his giant lawsuit against Google that seemed almost like a denial of the reality.

"We won on infringement," Ellison said, in what was essentially his final comment on the Google case. "The jury found that Google infringed our copyrights. I don't want to go into a lot of detail. The important part of the case is about copyrights and copyrightability of software. When the litigation is over, I'll be happy to talk about it."

Ellison's statement is technically true; the jury did find that Google infringed Oracle copyrights but split on fair use. Judge William Alsup, who oversaw the case, made clear that meant there was "zero liability" for Google. Still, at the time, it looked like it may have been almost a win for Oracle.

However, an interview with the jury foreman after the case was over showed that the jury felt driven to the infringement conclusion because of the judge's instructions. Overall, the jury was split 9-3 in Google's favor during the copyright trial--and was unanimously in Google's favor on the patent issues.

Ellison jokes about other legal battles with HP, SAP

Ellison, who testified at the Oracle v. Google trial, was keener to talk about other legal battles. He's on the defense in a courtroom spat with Hewlett-Packard, which sued over Oracle's decision to stop making its database software for HP's Itanium servers. Jury selection in that case begins tomorrow.

"HP says we have a contractual obligation to port to Itanium, and we don't think that's true," said Ellison. "So we're going to court, and a judge will decide."

The Itanium contract case is the second high-profile lawsuit HP has brought against Oracle recently. In 2010, HP sued Oracle for hiring its ex-CEO Mark Hurd, saying he would divulge trade secrets. That lawsuit settled within two weeks.

Still, Ellison was at least somewhat diplomatic with HP, offering some kind words for the company's new CEO, Meg Whitman.

"I wish Meg nothing but the best," said Ellison. "I like HP. I think HP is an icon. Those of us raised in the Valley think of Bill Hewlett and David Packard as role models. HP has lots of great people."

When it came to SAP and its former head Leo Apotheker—who later went to HP—Ellison didn't have anything nice to say, but he certainly wasn't going to say nothing at all. "You know, SAP pleaded guilty to criminal theft of our software," he said. When HP decided to fire Mark Hurd and bring Apotheker on board, it "was the best idea since the Apple board fired Steve Jobs," he quipped.

Oracle sued SAP over that stolen software and won a $1.3 billion jury verdict in 2010. A judge lowered the damages to $272 million, which spurred Oracle to demand a new trial.

Ellison went on to describe Apotheker's behavior in darker, almost criminal, terms.

"We subpoenaed him for the SAP trial, and then he was on the lam. Where was Leo, lay-oh?" asked Ellison, playing on alternate pronunciations of Apotheker's name. "We'll take either one of them! The HP board sent him to Bolivia to talk to customers, then to Mongolia—just out of reach of that federal subpoena. The board finally figured out, you know, we should have left Leo in Mongolia."

After Ellison wrapped up his diatribe against Oracle's legal foes—well received by the crowd—Swisher asked him: "What keeps you going?"

"Red bull," answered Ellison.

Meanwhile in court: Oracle loses final longshot on patent arguments

Ellison's comments on the case came as Judge William Alsup, who oversaw the Oracle v. Google litigation, rebuffed an attempt by Oracle's lawyers to overturn the jury's patent verdict. In an order [PDF] issued this afternoon, he rejected Oracle's arguments.

Dealing with such motions to overturn a jury verdict is a standard coda to many intellectual property cases, and don't usually result in jury verdicts being thrown out. However, this case will very likely be appealed by Oracle, so this motion may lay the groundwork for some of the company's arguments at the appellate level.