The Oracle vs. Google court battle took yet another turn this week when the federal judge overseeing the Java patent litigation said the trial may have to be delayed until authorities finish reexamining some of Oracle’s patents. This process may turn out to be a pretty lengthy one, considering the time frames usually involved:

“Oracle sued Google in August, alleging that its Android mobile OS infringes on seven of Oracle’s Java patents. Google has denied any wrongdoing.

In February, Google asked the U.S. Patent & Trade Office to perform the re-examinations, which on average take 26 months to be completed, according to USPTO figures.

But in reality, re-examinations can take three or four years, and some have been in process for 10 years, one expert previously told IDG News Service.

Oracle claims Google’s Android has infringements of 7 of its Java patents, the programming language the software giant has bought as part of the 2010 Sun acquisition. Originally, Oracle filed 132 claims against Google, District court Judge William Alsup ordered to reduce that number to only three. Alsup also asked Google to remove some of its claims, ironically because, according to a statement, he wanted to fasten the trial which has been going on for quite some time now – ever since last year.

Prior to the judge’s decision of making the Oracle vs. Google court battle a lot of similar, he opted for Oracle’s interpretation of four out of five claim constructs, the documents which define the scope of a party’s patent rights. He wrote the fifth one on his on his own.

Oracle won one battle with that decision, though Google won the next. It also seems that it won the latest one, considering that it may have bought itself quite a bit of time.