After nearly four years of legal wrangling, a U.S. jury has ruled in favour of Google in its long-running dispute with Oracle. According to Dorian Daley, general counsel for Oracle, the company still believes that the development of Android was done through the illegal copying of core technology found in Java, and that there are several grounds to base its appeal on. This is a big blow to Oracle, which spent millions on this legal fight in an attempt to make money from Google’s extremely successful mobile platform.
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Google, meanwhile, is happy. In a statement, Google said the result was “a win for the Android ecosystem, for the Java programming community, and for software developers who rely on open and free programming languages to build innovative consumer products”.
Oracle said that it would appeal against the decision. This ended the trial because if the jury had answered in Oracle’s favor, they would have gone into a “damages phase” to determine the extent of damages Google would be liable to pay.
Google’s victory does little to mitigate the potential risk software developers now face if they incorporate copyrighted APIs into their code.
The issue here is whether APIs can be subject to copyright, and if so, whether there is a fair use exception.
Java, which became an Oracle product following its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, was argued by Oracle’s legal team as used unfairly by Google who copied segments of the Java API packages, all while Java’s business of licencing was struggling to reap in the finances.
In the first trial in 2012, the jury reached a mixed verdict leading Judge William Alsup to rule that APIs aren’t copyrightable.
This despite Oracle’s claim that Google copied 11,500 lines of code which it described as being an “undisputed” fact.
Google countered that the Java language was free to use and this also includes the re-implementation of its APIs.
In a statement, Robert Van Nest Google’s lead lawyer said, “we’re grateful for the jury’s verdict”.
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The BBC has more detail, noting that Android powers around 80% of smartphone devices around the world.
