US Court Rules Google Infringed Oracle’s Copyright In Its APIs

On March 9, 2014, the US Federal Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) issued a highly controversial landmark decision, ruling that copyright exists in Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). In reaching its decision, the Federal Circuit overruled a district court decision that Oracle’s APIs were not protected by copyright (previously reported by E-TIPS® here). The Federal Circuit directed the case back to the district court to decide whether Google’s use was “fair use”. Oracle initiated its legal dispute against Google in 2010, seeking $1 billion in damages from Google for its infringement of Oracle’s copyright in its Java APIs. Google inserted code from 37 Java API packages into its software for the Android operating mobile system. Oracle claimed copyright in both the declaring software code and in the overall, structure, sequence and organization of its Java API packages. Oracle argued that copyright protection should be afforded to the Java API packages since they are expressive and could have been written and organized in a number of different ways. Google argued that the declaring software code of Oracle’s APIs should not be protected by copyright because of one or more of the following concepts: (a) the merger doctrine; (b) short phrases; and (c) scènes à faire. Google also argued that the structure, sequence and organization of Oracle’s Java API packages should not be protected by copyright because they were functional and a system or method of operation. The Federal Circuit rejected each of Google’s arguments. For commentary, click here. Summary by: Adam Lis