Jury decides Java copyright lawsuit in Google’s favor

A US jury has unanimously decided the case between Oracle and Google in Google’s favor. This means that Google does not have to pay the 9 billion dollars that Oracle might demand. The company found that Google had infringed its copyright on Java.

For example, a large part of the Android APIs would be based on those of Java; in Oracle’s eyes, this amounted to copying it. Google argued that it was about fair use and that Java was used to innovate and not to copy, Bloomberg reports. The jury was ultimately convinced by Google’s arguments. Oracle says the company plans to appeal, but it seems difficult to overturn a jury verdict. The case has been going on since 2010 and in 2012 a jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Had the lawsuit gone in Oracle’s favour, it would have had far-reaching implications for software copyright, and especially APIs. This may have resulted in more lawsuits by rightholders. At an earlier stage, Oracle claimed that Google made about 22 billion dollars in profit with Android, so that the requested damages also amounted to a high amount. However, it is not clear how much Oracle would have demanded in the end.

In an email to Bloomberg, Google said it views the ruling as “a victory for the Android ecosystem, for the Java community and for software developers.”