Google has been denied a stay in its lawsuit over book scanning, which has been going on for about three quarters of a decade.

Jeff John Roberts at PaidContent points to a court order from the Judge, discussing why it feels a stay would be unproductive.

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin said in the order, “On August 14, 2012, the Court of Appeals granted Google’s petition for permission to appeal the Class Certification Order. The Court of Appeals did not order a stay of proceedings in this Court. In my view, a stay is not warranted. This case is now some seven years old. Discovery is complete. Both sides have filed summary judgment motions, and but for the fact of plaintiffs’ counsel’s unfortunate illness, opposition papers would have been submitted by now. A stay pending appeal would significantly delay the merits, perhaps for as much as a year or even more. The merits would have to be reached at some point in any event, and there simply is no good reason to delay matters further.”

“Google’s argument that it would be unfair to decide the merits of the case before the end of the opt-out period for class members is surprising, in light of Google’s fervent opposition to class certification. Indeed, should Google prevail on its motion for summary judgment and, as it fears, class members are motivated to opt out of the class, Google would be in no worse a position than it would have been in had it prevailed on the class certification motion and the plaintiffs had been forced to litigate their claims individually. And should plaintiffs prevail on summary judgment, the goal of efficiency would be well served as fewer plaintiffs are likely to opt out.”

The order concludes, telling all parties to proceed as previously ordered.