A California judge has dismissed Oracle’s claim that web giant Google may owe up to $2.6 billion in damages for infringing Java-related patents in its Android mobile operating system.

US District Judge William Alsup said Oracle had "overreached" in its damages claim, "evidently with the goal of seeing how much it could get away with". He said the Oracle should postpone the trial until until it "settles on which claims it truly believes are triable".

He also remarked, however, that Google was also unrealistic in its claim that it owed nothing. "You’re both asking for the moon and you should be more reasonable," Alsup told lawyers from both companies.

The trial to settle the legal dispute between the two companies has been set for Halloween.