Google Defeats Oracle in an 11-Year Java Code Copyright Dispute

On Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Google, a company that is part of the Alphabet Inc holding, in a patent dispute with Oracle Corp over the rights to Java and the use of this software platform in the Android operating system.

Java was developed by Sun Microsystems and entered the market in 1995. In 2009, Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle.

The court overturned a lower court ruling alleging copyright infringement by Google and said it was fair of the big tech company to copy Java codes partially.

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Oracle has accused Google of illegally copying more than 11,000 Java API code lines to develop the Android operating system, which runs on more than 2 billion mobile devices worldwide. Oracle was seeking $9 billion compensation from Google for lost revenue from Java software. Google pointed out that the Java elements that it uses in Android are not subject to copyright laws. Thus, the company can legally use elements of the Java API for Android.

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Initially, the court sided with Google, but in 2018, the appellate court reconsidered the case and found that Oracle's rights were still violated. But then, Supreme Court has ruled that Google's use of this code is not copyright infringement. After Google won the trial, its shares rose 4,5%.

Oracle is extremely unhappy with the court's decision. The company stated that without strong copyright protection, it would have less incentive to make the large investments needed to create innovative products. Oracle accused Google of monopolistic behavior, arguing that the company simply stole Java and went unpunished due to its huge market influence.