I heard that Sun used to charge royaltees for mobile phones that licensed the J2ME platform - complaint or certified implementations. And this kinda proves this: From http://java.sun.com/j2se/embedded/faq.html#faq10: Q: Does deploying Java SE for embedded devices or purposes require a royalty? A: Yes. Sun's license for Java SE enables it to be freely used for general purpose desktops or servers. If Java SE is bundled as part of a dedicated solution that involves or controls hardware of some kind, then it's likely an embedded application and is subject to modest royalty payments. I believe Google java implementation is custom - not part of SE or ME - so they avoid having pay any royaltees to Oracle. This is why I think Oracle is pissed.