I’m sure most of you remember the Google/Oracle lawsuit that took place over a year ago. Oracle claimed Google infringed on their copyright of Java and used pieces of copyrighted Java code to build Android, so Oracle thought they deserved a slice of Google’s profit. Considering Google has sold an absolutely incredible amount of Android phones, Oracle claimed they were owed about 6 billion dollars in damages. That eventually got cut to 1 billion in damages, but ultimately the case was ruled in favor of Google. To add insult to injury, Oracle was slapped with Google’s legal fees on top of everything.
Apparently, Oracle has decided they aren’t happy with the decision in that case and they’re looking to reopen the claims to try to get a different outcome. The appeal is centered around the ruling that application programming interfaces, or APIs, are not protected by copyright. Oracle wants to overturn that ruling and then pursue Google for damages.
There’s plenty of writing on the subject since that case came to close, but essentially Google claims it wasn’t in violation of Oracle’s software because it only used the APIs to create the very basic structural part of Android. Over 15 million lines of code for Android were completely original, so it isn’t as if Google just took Java and turned it into a smartphone platform.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this case plays out (again), but we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop as soon as anything else major happens.
source: Business Week
Come comment on this article: Oracle trying to appeal old lawsuit, still claims Google infringed to create Android
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