Judge orders Oracle, Google to disclose paid journalists and bloggers

In a surprise order, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said “the court is concerned” that Oracle and Google may have hired authors to comment about their ongoing court case.

Now, Judge Alsup wants the parties to submit a list of their paid propagandists. The unusual request comes months after the “World Series” of intellectual property trials in which Oracle unsuccessfully sued Google for billions. The trial was remarkable not only for the large damage figures but for Oracle’s decision to hire Florian Mueller, a self-described “patent analyst” who also takes money from Microsoft. In his FOSS Patents blog, Mueller wrote a series of one-sided posts over the course of the trial such as “Oracle Java patent rises like Ph0enix from the ashes.” Despite a lack of legal training, Mueller holds himself out as a patent expert to the media and typically does not disclose that he is paid by the companies he reports on. He has also blocked me and other journalists who have questioned his impartiality from viewing his Twitter feed.