Google CEO gets grilled in Oracle trial

SAN FRANCISCO — Google CEO Larry Page spent nearly an hour in a federal courtroom Wednesday deflecting questions about his role in a copyright dispute over some of the technology in his company’s Android software for smartphones.

The taciturn Page of- ten looked uncomfortable on the witness stand as he sparred with David Boies, a tenacious lawyer who made headlines for grill- ing former Microsoft Corp. CEO Bill Gates in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the US government in 1990s.

In this trial, Boies is working for business software maker Oracle Corp., which accused Google Inc. of building its Android software by stealing pieces of the technology from Java, a programming platform that Oracle now owns.

Oracle, which is based in Redwood Shores, California, is seeking hundreds of millions in damages and royalties for Google’s future use of Android, which powers more than 300 million smartphones and tablet computers.

In a measure of the trial’s high stakes, Oracle has already called two multibillionaire executives to the witness stand. Oracle’s own CEO, Larry Ellison, appeared Tuesday, as did Page for a brief round of questioning before his Wednesday return for more extensive interrogations. In both appearances, Page sported a suit and tie, a departure from the casual attire he wears around Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters.

Page looked like he wished he could have stayed in Mountain View Wednesday. During his time on the stand, he rarely looked at Boies and frequently said he couldn’t remember seeing some of the internal Google documents that Oracle is using to build its case.

Page’s foggy memory seemed to exasperate Boies, perhaps because the haze may have worked to Google’s advantage.

Boies’ attempts to display exhibits containing inside information about Google were blocked by US District Judge William Alsup because Page couldn’t recall seeing them. Although it’s unclear what was in the exhibits, it was clear Google’s own lawyers didn’t want the contents to be exposed in a public courtroom.

Some of the evidence currently being kept under court seal is believed to include disclosures about how much money Google has made from Android since the software hit the market in 2008 — a financial nugget that Google has never revealed. (AP)