“We believe there are numerous grounds for appeal and we plan to bring this case back to the Federal Circuit on appeal”, the company’s Dorian Daley said, according to Ars Technica.
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Oracle contended that Google needed a license to use its Java programming language to develop Android, the operating system in 80 percent of the world’s mobile devices.
In closing arguments earlier this week, a Google attorney said Oracle’s real reason for filing the lawsuit was that it failed in its own attempts to enter the smartphone market.
The jury has voted that Google does not infringe the copyright owned by Oracle when it implemented 37 Java APIs in Android, as the APIs were protected by fair use.
Google pointed out that Java has always been “free and open” to use-and that included re-implementing Java APIs.
The jury delivered a unanimous decision, which was achieved after three days of deliberation. To cut to the chase, that battle is now over and the ruling is in and Google has been found “innocent” of the charges with the jury deciding that the use of java by Google was one which was of “fair use”.
Google countered that the Java language was free to use and this also includes the re-implementation of its APIs.
This, despite Oracle’s claim that Google copied 11,500 lines of code, which it described as being an “undisputed” fact. Oracle said it saw many premises to appeal and would do so. That case ended in 2012 with Google being largely the victor.
An amicus brief filed in 2013 on behalf of 32 prominent computer scientists by the Electronic Frontier Foundation argued that Alsup’s decision in Google’s favor should be upheld. Still, the company does not believe that it violated any copyrights in using Java’s software codes.
James Malackowski of intellectual property research company Ocean Tomo, which was hired by Oracle, compiled a pre-trial report on requested damages and profits.
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Judge Alsup, who again oversaw the case, said that figure was “speculative”, since we can’t know whether Java would have taken a more prominent role in smartphones had Android not used the APIs. It would’ve been a serious blow to open source software development.
