Oracle, a company who for the past decade seems to be known only for being relevant a decade ago is in the spotlight once again.

Apparently Google’s Android operating system uses Java, a product of Sun Microsystems which Oracle purchased in 2009.

Oracle claims Google “knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property”, most likely hoping to scupper a “whoops, our bad” legal defense.

Oracle has not yet filed suit, so Google is unable to comment on the press release, but at an estimated 200,000 Android handsets being sold each day around the world, this could be a big fly in their ointment.

Tech pundits are already likening the dispute to a debate over java between Sun and Microsoft back in 1997, when Microsoft ended up paying $1 billion to settle.

One interesting sidenote is that Sun open-sourced large parts of the Java source code in 2006, so it will be interesting to see how Oracle is going to play this one.