Summary: Of all the solicitors in the world Oracle has chosen MoFo and Boies Schiller, which one might recognise from SCO's (non)case against Linux

LAST YEAR we wrote about MoFo (it also stands for or abbreviates "motherf*****", not just Morrison & Foerster LLP), which played a part in the SCO case. Many articles about Oracle's Java lawsuit [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12] mention Schmidt's prior role at Novell; for example:

Google's founders had a vision of a world where superior efficiency and scale provided unchallenged market position and competitive advantage. CEO Eric Schmidt joined after being at two companies that lost such a game: Sun and Novell (NOVL). (Am I the only one who sees an irony in Schmidt being beaten over the head with a club he helped make?)

Notice who plays for Oracle: MoFo and Boies Schiller:

MoFo, Boies Schiller Take Lead as Oracle Slaps Google With Patent Suit

[...]

Beck notes that Boies and Jacobs have been adversaries before, squaring off against one another in the six-year dispute between SCO Group and Novell over copyrights to the UNIX operating system. Boies represented SCO; Jacobs prevailed in a trial this year on behalf of Novell.

How hard is Oracle trying to be associated with or compared to SCO (as in "SCOracle")? Here is another new article about it:

Oracle Taps MoFo, Boies for Patent Suit Against Google

[...]

Another interesting fact: Boies and MoFo's Jacobs, who are co-counsel in this case, faced off in the six-year legal fight in which SCO Group sued Novell over copyrights to the UNIX operating system. Jacobs represented Novell and Boies represented SCO. Jacobs has emerged the winner so far, with Novell prevailing in a trial this year in which it was found to own the copyrights to UNIX. SCO has appealed. (Boies himself did not handle that trial.)

Is Oracle planning a similar legal strategy? Hopefully this won't be a long battle. The quicker the resolution, the better. ⬆