Oracle and Google are now set to go before the US District Court of San Francisco on 16 April. Oracle had turned down a settlement offer from Google last week which has led Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal to decide that the case will go ahead.

Grewal noted that, in some lawsuits, a trial can not be avoided and that this case was a good example of such circumstances. He added: "Despite their diligent efforts and those of their able counsel, the parties have reached an irreconcilable impasse in their settlement discussions with the undersigned."

Oracle is suing Google for allegedly infringing some of its Java-related patents in the Dalvik virtual machine that is an integral part of Android and its copyright on the Java API. Oracle's patent claims have been reduced significantly in previous hearings and the case is now mostly about Oracle's copyright claims and the question whether the company can claim copyright on an API specification. The damage claims were similarly reduced over the course of the pre-trial proceedings.

(fab)