Supreme Court Sides With Google Over Oracle in Multibillion-Dollar Copyright Battle -- 2nd Update
April 05 2021 - 12:11PM
Dow Jones News
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for Alphabet
Inc.'s Google in a multibillion-dollar copyright battle with Oracle
Corp. over how it built its Android smartphone-operating
system.
The court, in a 6-2 opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, threw out
a lower-court ruling for Oracle that said Google's Android
infringed its copyrights on the Java software platform. The high
court said Google's copying of some Java API code was fair use.
APIs, or application programming interfaces, are prewritten
packages of computer code that allow programs, websites or apps to
talk to one another.
"Google's copying did not violate the copyright law," Justice
Breyer wrote.
Oracle acquired the Java technology when it bought Sun
Microsystems Inc. in 2010.
Oracle accused Google of illegally copying more than 11,000
lines of Java API code to develop Android, which runs more than two
billion mobile devices world-wide.
Oracle previously sought as much as $9 billion in damages from
Google.
"The Google platform just got bigger and market power greater.
The barriers to entry higher and the ability to compete lower,"
Oracle said in a statement. "They stole Java and spent a decade
litigating as only a monopolist can. This behavior is exactly why
regulatory authorities around the world and in the United States
are examining Google's business practices."
Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer and senior vice
president for global affairs, said the ruling "is a victory for
consumers, interoperability, and computer science. The decision
gives legal certainty to the next generation of developers whose
new products and services will benefit consumers."
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 05, 2021 11:56 ET (15:56 GMT)
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