The cost bill filed by Google underscores the intensity of this case and shows that we caught only <i>surface glimpses</i> of what surely were day-to-day firefights keeping the lawyers and their minions going round-the-clock for an intense year's worth of fighting.<p>A "cost bill" is not a bill for the attorneys' fees incurred in a case. Under U.S. rules, the parties bear their own legal fees in most cases (and that is the case here).<p>But federal court rules do permit a prevailing party to recover from the losing party necessary costs incurred in dealing with document production and similar matters in the litigation. The out-of-pocket bill here (not including attorneys' fees) for Google to filter through 97 million documents and to produce just over 3 million of them after careful assessment and screening: about $2.9 million (mostly paid to electronic discovery service providers, who surely found full-time employment in this case during this past year).<p>The bulk of the remaining bill for costs consists of nearly $1 million paid to expert witnesses for their assistance in helping to prepare and present Google's case.<p>In a case like this, Google's attorneys' fees had to run at least $10 million <i>per month</i>, at least during the intense phases of the case. I would estimate, then, that total attorneys' fees in the case <i>easily</i> exceeded $100 million and may well have done so <i>for Google alone</i>.<p>Big Law may be in the doldrums today in general but a case like this clearly offers a big payday. The law firms here were all exemplary and undoubtedly earned it. Still, the cost is staggering to contemplate for the casual outside observer.
Whatever the result, the lawyers always win.<p>This is pocket change for Oracle. The real set back to them is the result of the case.<p>And though it's good to see the aggressor in one of these lawsuits actually lose, it's saddening to think that if Oracle or a pure patent troll went after a company without 4 million to pay for a defensive suit, they would have won.
When I was a kid, I read comics or heard jokes where the punchline was about everyones unanimous hatred for lawyers, I was always a bit confused.<p>But witnessing the last few yrs in the tech industry (in addition to politics and divorce law), it's become very apparent to me <i>why</i> thats the case.
I can't imagine Oracle being too bothered by the sum itself, but it must be pretty embarrassing for them to be the aggressors in this case, and ask for billions in the beginning from Google, then to find out that they could only get like $35 million at most, even if they do win, and finally to lose the case, and themselves be the ones paying millions to Google.