Supreme Court rules in favor of Google on Oracle dispute

The Supreme Court ruled that Google had not committed copyright infringement against Oracle when it was developing its Android operating system.

CNN’s Brian Fung reported:

The Supreme Court has handed Google a win in a decade-old case in software development, holding that the technology giant did not commit copyright infringement against Oracle when it copied snippets of programming language to build its Android operating system.

Google’s copying of so-called application programming interfaces from Oracle’s Java SE was an example of fair use, the court held in a 6-2 decision authored by Justice Stephen Breyer.

Reuters’ Andrew Chung wrote:

Oracle and Google, two California-based technology giants with combined annual revenues of more than $175 billion, have been feuding since Oracle sued for copyright infringement in 2010 in San Francisco federal court. Google had appealed a 2018 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington reviving the suit.

Daniel Howley from Yahoo Finance wrote:

“The fair use analysis is really going to set a precedent that’s going to shape serious case law for many, many years to come,” Corynne McSherry, legal director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed an amicus brief on Google’s behalf, told Yahoo Finance.

“It’s really a fantastic win,” McSherry said, adding that the ruling means “other small companies who are trying to figure out ‘can I do this creative new innovative thing where I need to maybe build on somebody else’s work?’ will have more comfort that ultimately what they’re doing will be found to be lawful.”