What Oracle v. Google Decision Means for Copyright & Technology

This morning, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Google’s use of Oracle’s Java development platform to create the Android operating system was not protected under the fair-use provision of copyright law, reversing a 2016 jury verdict resurrecting a multi-billion dollar copyright case brought by Oracle Corp against Google. The dispute is over pre-written directions known as application program interfaces, or APIs, which can work across different types of devices and provide the instructions for things like connecting to the internet or accessing certain types of files.

J. Michael Keyes is a partner at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney. He is an intellectual property attorney with extensive trial and litigation experience in cases involving trademarks, copyrights, unfair competition and false advertising. He has tried several cases in federal courts across the United States. Recently, Keyes and … Click HERE to continue reading