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Oh, this is going to get juicy real quick. U.S. District Judge William Alsup is demanding the names of any writers who have a paid relationship with Oracle or Google. The demand came today in the ongoing lawsuit between the two companies in their dispute over the Android OS. Alsup wrote he is concerned that the parties and/or their lawyers may have hired or paid journalists, commentators or bloggers who then commented on the case. The order was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Alsup writes: “Although proceedings in this matter are almost over, they are not fully over yet and, in any event, the disclosure required by this order would be of use on appeal or on any remand to make clear whether any treatise, article, commentary or analysis on the issues posed by this case are possibly influenced by financial relationships.” Oracle and Google must turn over the names by August 17. The controversy is enveloping Florian Mueller, one of the more incendiar...

Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More Samsung and Apple’s big patent trial took an intriguing turn earlier this week when members of Samsung’s legal team decided to send information that was unusable in court to a handful of eager reporters. Of course, Apple wasn’t about to take that lying down. Apple attorney William F. Lee recently filed a motion that asked for the Korean electronics giant to be sanctioned (again). This time though, instead of monetary damages or a procedural edge in court, Lee’s newly requested sanction calls for the case to be dismissed and for Judge Lucy Koh to find in Apple’s favor. In Lee’s own words: “…Apple respectfully reque...

Colleen Taylor is based in San Francisco where she is a reporter for TechCrunch TV. Previously she worked for GigaOM, where she reported on startups and Silicon Valley. Earlier, Colleen reported for Mergermarket, an online newswire and subsidiary of the Financial Times focused on M&A. Before that, she was a contributing editor for Electronic News, the semiconductor industry trade newsletter. Colleen... ? Learn More It’s been clear from the beginning that it would be a long road to a resolution in the salacious lawsuit brought against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers by one of its female partners, Ellen Pao. And as of now, it will continue to play out in the courts, and not behind closed doors. This morning, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn ruled that Ellen Pao, the Kleiner Perkins partner who is suing the venerated Silicon Valley venture capital firm for the alleged gender discrimination and retaliation she says she encountered after complai...