Dive Brief:

• Google, which won a copyright infringement case in May over its use of Java APIs, wants sanctions against Oracle and its law firm in the action.
• The dispute centers around Google's claims that an Oracle lawyer disclosed sensitive, nonpublic financial information in open court.
• The disclosure led to several news reports, including stories that Google had paid Apple $1 billion to keep Google's search bar on iPhones.

Dive Insight:

This litigation dates all the way back to 2010 and was instigated by Oracle, but a jury found in May that Google's use of the APIs wasn't copyright infringement. Now, as Ars Technica so directly puts it, Google is apparently twisting the knife against Oracle.

Back in January, an Oracle lawyer made several claims about the profitability of Google's Android OS -- claims which Google's lawyer said were hypothetical and had not been publicly disclosed. Google took a series of legal actions to try to keep the numbers under wraps, but the news media got a whiff of the claims and several reports followed. Perhaps the most interesting: A claim, first reported by Bloomberg, that Google paid Apple $1 billion in 2014 to keep the Google search bar on the iPhone. That information, and other sensitive financial data, spread throughout the tech and business news sphere in the subsequent days and weeks.

Google's lawyers objected and sought sanctions against Oracle and its lawyers, but U.S. District Judge William Alsup said he'd wait until after the trial to consider them. Last week, with trial finished, Alsup granted permission to Google to seek the sanctions, Ars Technica reports. Google also wants Oracle to pay nearly $4 million in costs in the case.