ARTICLE · 30 MAY 2018

Copyright Protection For APIs

Goldman Sloan Nash & Haber LLP

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Oracle America Inc.'s claims against Google Inc. are back in the news again. At one point it appeared that Google would succeed with its fair use defense. However, Oracle has recently scored a significant victory.

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Oracle America Inc.'s claims against Google Inc. are back in the news again. At one point it appeared that Google would succeed with its fair use defense. However, Oracle has recently scored a significant victory.

The History

Oracle brought an action against Google in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Google's unauthorized use of 37 packages of Oracle's Java application programming interface ("API packages") in its Android operating system infringed Oracle's copyrights. At the first trial, the jury found that Google infringed Oracle's copyrights in the Java Standard Edition platform, but deadlocked on the question of whether Google's copying was a fair use. After the verdict, the district court found that the API packages were not copyrightable as a matter of law and entered judgment for Google.

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