Copyright News

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Citation: Vol. 46 No. 2
• Publication year: 2021
• topic: Intellectual Property,Copyright law

Copyright News

Jo Ardalan

One LLP

THE SUPREME COURT FAVORS GOOGLE IN FAIR USE FIGHT AGAINST ORACLE

On April 5, 2021, the Supreme Court ended the epic litigation concerning Google's use of Oracle's Java SE computer program without permission. It held that Google had made a fair use of Oracle's code.¹ Much to Justice Thomas's dismay, the Court did not address whether the code was copyrightable at all.² In dissent, Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Alito, admonished the majority for "disregard[ing] half the relevant statutory text and distort[ing] its fair use analysis."³

The dispute traced to Google's use of Java code in the Android smartphone platform. Google wanted to use a "free and open" code to encourage software developers to develop Android-based applications, thereby making Android smartphones more attractive to consumers.⁴ Java had already been used by six million programmers to develop computer software. When Google acquired Android, it spoke to Oracle's predecessor, Sun Microsystems, about licensing the entire Java platform for use with Android phones, but the negotiations broke down when Google refused to commit to making programs written for Android interoperable, thereby enabling the resulting programs to run on any hardware. Google's stance resulted from its desire not to impose conditions on anyone writing Java applications rather than a desire to restrict such applications to use on the Android platform.

Without a deal, Google deployed 100 engineers for 3 years to write millions of lines of code to create its own Android platform software tailored for use on smartphones, which differ from desktop and laptop computers in several significant ways.⁵ Smartphones, for example, operate using limited battery capacity and make use of GPS technology. So far, so good.

Oracle took exception, though, to Google's use of 11,500 lines of code from an Oracle Application Programming Interface, commonly referred to as an API, which allowed programmers "to use...prewritten code to build certain functions into their own programs, rather than write their own code to perform those functions from scratch."⁶

An API is a tool that "allow[s] programmers to use...prewritten code to build certain functions into their own programs rather than write their own code to perform those functions from scratch."⁷ It organizes individual tasks into larger "classes" and the classes into larger "packages." Each task requires an "implementing code" to tell a computer which implementing code to use when executing a task. The implementing code was not copied by Google.⁸ It was written independently.

Because a computer may carry out a million tasks, it must both identify the correct implementing code to perform the desired task and then locate it within the computer's vast amount of software.⁹ The first step is performed by sending a "method call," which names the correct...