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ARTICLE · 12 APRIL 2021

U.S. Supreme Court Ends Decade-Long Software Copyright Battle: Google Wins

Jones Day
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U.S. Supreme Court holds that Google's use of a small fraction of Oracle's Java SE API code for its Android platform is a fair use under copyright law.

United StatesIntellectual Property
John Froemming
John Froemming
Angela Gott
Angela Gott
Carl Kukkonen III
Carl Kukkonen III
Anna Raimer
Anna Raimer
Jennifer Swize
Jennifer Swize
Meredith Wilkes
Meredith Wilkes
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U.S. Supreme Court holds that Google's use of a small fraction of Oracle's Java SE API code for its Android platform is a fair use under copyright law.

On April 5, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a more than 10-year battle between Google and Oracle over copyright infringement claims concerning Google's Android mobile platform and Oracle's Java programming language. In a 6-2 opinion authored by Justice Breyer (Justice Barrett did not participate), the Court held that Google's use of a small fraction of Oracle's Java SE API code for its Android platform was protected under copyright's fair use doctrine. Although ruling for Google on fair use, the Court did not address the question of whether Oracle's API declaring code was entitled to copyright protection, instead assuming "for argument's sake" the code was copyrightable. 

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