Judge orders Google, Oracle to reveal any paid commentators

Google Inc and Oracle Corp's copyright and patent battle took a strange twist on Tuesday, after a judge ordered the companies to disclose the names of journalists, bloggers and other commentators on their payrolls.

US District Judge William Alsup said he was concerned that Google and Oracle and their counsel may have retained or paid people who may have published comment on the case.

The order, several months after a jury found that Google did not infringe on Oracle's patents, hints at the possibility of a hidden world of for-pay news coverage and injects uncertainty into the widely-followed case.