Neither Oracle nor Google asked Alsup to delay the case Wednesday, and he seemed reluctant to let anything slow down the proceedings. The judge said he would like the case to be over before the end of November, because that's when his law clerk is scheduled to finish her term with him.

Law clerks are usually assigned to a judge for a year and help manage their case loads, doing research and drafting opinions for the judge to sign. The Oracle-Google case is a complex one and it would be "a real burden" to have to bring another law clerk up to speed, Alsup said.

"You have the luxury of resources that I don't have," he told the lawyers.

A jury trial is currently scheduled for Oct. 31, so the judge will need to keep the case on track if he wants it to finish that quickly. Oracle's trial against SAP this year took three weeks to complete, and the issues in that case were less complex.

A spokeswoman for Oracle declined to comment on Wednesday's hearing and Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.