Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court in San Fransisco has ordered Oracle Corporation to reduce the number of patent infringement claims against Google, Inc., from 132 to three.  At the same time, Google has been told to narrow its prior art invalidity defenses as well, from hundreds to eight.

Back in August of last year, Oracle leveled seven Java-related patents against Google’s Android software development kit. The patents, owned by Oracle America, are: United States Patents Nos. 6,125,447; 6,192,476; 5,966,702; 7,426,720; RE38,104; 6,910,205; and 6,061,520, originally issued to Sun. The complaint alleges that Google has been aware of Sun’s patent portfolio, including the patents at issue, since the middle of this decade, when Google hired certain former Sun Java engineers.

See my original post on the suit:  Oracle vs. Google: The Times They are a-Changin’