The verdict in favour of Google puts the lid on a six-year copyright battle between the search giant and software developer Oracle, which had claimed Google’s use of the propriety Java code exceeded fair use and was up to $9bn in damages for the alleged infringement. The Android operating system, which uses 37 Java application programing interfaces (APIs), is currently used by around 1.4 billion mobile phone users worldwide and accounts for a staggering 80 per cent of the global market, and has so far reaped around $21bn in profit for Google.
Precedent set
The decision that Google’s use of Java programming language in the development of Android constituted ‘fair use’ is likely to elicit a sigh of relief from software developers who use APIs to write programs for use across different software platforms. Had a jury upheld Oracle’s case against Google by deciding that the company which owns an original coding language subsequently can stake a claim to systems which use part of its code, developers using APIs to write interoperable programs would have been left exposed to significant legal risks. ‘The ruling should encourage some of those companies that what they are doing is fair, and that they will ultimately prevail if sued for copyright infringement,’ said Santa Clara University Law School professor Tyler Ochoa to Bloomberg Technology. Professor Ochoa has been closely following the lawsuit between the two companies since it was first launched in 2010.
Appeal likely
A statement from Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley has made clear that the company will look to appeal against the ruling. ‘We strongly believe that Google developed Android by copying core Java technology to rush into the mobile device market. Oracle brought the lawsuit against Google to stop this illegal behaviour,’ he said, adding that the company saw ‘numerous grounds’ for an appeal.
Sources: Bloomberg Technology; The Guardian
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