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ARTICLE · 15 OCTOBER 2020

SCOTUS Reaches For Cup Of Java In Oracle v. Google Oral Argument

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
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On October 7, 2020, the Supreme Court held oral arguments in Google LLC. v. Oracle America, Inc.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP
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On October 7, 2020, the Supreme Court held oral arguments in Google LLC. v. Oracle America, Inc.

The case raises interesting questions about the protectability of computer code, the intersection between copyright and patent law, and the appropriate standard of review of jury determinations on fair use.

The outcome could have longstanding repercussions for the protection and use of software.   

What is an API?

When creating software applications, developers rely on functionality built into operating systems and programming languages. An API provides a menu of available functionality and tells developers what to provide and what information will be returned. To develop the Android operating system for its new mobile devices, Google wanted to use a well-known programming language to ease adoption. Instead of licensing Java, Google created its own implementation of the Java programming language, but copied the Oracle API used to invoke it.

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