US court gives Oracle another chance to put its patent case against Google

A US judge has rejected Oracle's claim for $2.6bn in damages from Google for infringing Java patents, but has given Oracle the chance to come up with a more reasonable claim.

Oracle last year sued Google, claiming the company's Android software infringed on Java patents Oracle took over through the acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010.

Oracle accuses Google of "knowingly, directly and repeatedly" infringing Oracle's Java-related intellectual property.

US District Judge William Alsup rejected Oracle's damages report in a written ruling on Friday, saying that Oracle had "overreached in multiple ways," according to Reuters.

But the judge added that if Oracle needs to postpone the October trial until it settles on which claims it truly believes are triable, then it should bring a prompt motion to do so.

Neither Google nor Oracle have commented on Friday's ruling.