Java (the language) isn't something that is patentable. They are reportedly being sued over the implementation of the VM, but the core ideas used in the VM (both Oracle's implementation and Google's implementation) are something like 30 years old. Sun just happened to be the first to try patenting the old ideas.

VP8 was designed to avoid patents, but there's so much stuff patented in the audio and video fields that it's nearly impossible to avoid infringing.