Oracle filed an appeal on the copyright infringement lawsuit against Google. Oracle alleged Google to violate copyright of its Java technology in creating its Android operating system. The jury's verdict last year was in favor of Google .
According to Recode, the original lawsuit is based on fundamental question whether the usage of open source technology created by other companies can infringe copyright. Oracle’s attorney argued that the copyright infringement can be applied for such case.
The lawsuit involved billions of dollar as reported by Business Insider. The case has become center of attention from tech industries, as this is the first case on copyright infringement of open source software.
Oracle sued Google in 2012 for copyrights and patents infringement for Oracle’s Java technology used by Google to develop Android operating system. Judge William Alsup from U.S. District Court of Northern California ruled in May 2012 that Google did not violate copyright and patents owned by Oracle.
Subsequently, Oracle filed an appeal to the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, followed by Google’s cross-appeal against Oracle in 2013. The Court of Appeals reversed the lower court decision saying that the Java API could be copyrighted.
Both Google and Oracle filed a petitioned to Supreme Court in 2014. Supreme Court asked the input and opinion from U.S. Solicitor General’s regarding the issue. Subsequently, the Supreme Court remanded the case back to district court.
In the second trial, which Oracle sought a $9 billion damage claims, jury once again were in favor of Google. Jury declared Google did not violate Oracle’s copyright on Java technology used for Android. The Oracle America, Inc. v. Google, Inc. case would be an important precedent for open source software copyright infringement against the proprietary API. Watch the news from Digital Trend regarding the May 2016 court decision to allow Google to use Java API freely below:
