The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case concerning Google’s use of Oracle’s copyrighted APIs in its Android programming, the Verge reports. Google sought to appeal a May 2014 federal appeals court decision, which asserted that Oracle’s APIs were copyrightable.
This is the latest in the Google v. Oracle saga, which began when Oracle filed suit in 2010, demanding $1 billion in damages for Google’s use of 37 packages of Oracle APIs. Google built Android on Java, a coding language developed by Oracle-owned Sun Microsystems. In its programming, Google used a number of Java’s pre-existing APIs, coding shortcuts that allow programs to communicate with each other and save time and money.
Google has long claimed that APIs are not copyrightable and that “open and interoperable computer languages form an essential basis for software development.” Oracle disagrees, calling its code “original and highly creative.” The company insists, “Google was free to write its own code to perform the same functions as Oracle’s. Instead, it plagiarized.”
In 2012, a district court took Google’s side, saying that APIs are “a utilitarian and functional set of symbols,” but the May 2014 decision reversed this ruling. The federal appeals court asserted that Oracle’s APIs were copyrightable, but that Google may have lawfully applied them under fair-use. The Supreme Court’s decision to not hear Google’s appeal essentially reinforces the May 2014 ruling and sends the case back to a lower court to decide on fair-use.
The Court did not comment on its decision, though the executive branch may have had an influence. SCOTUS had reached out to the Obama administration asking for its counsel on whether or not to hear the case, and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli issued a brief urging the court to decline. He stressed that the May 2014 decision had already determined that the APIs were copyrightable and added that one of Google’s arguments was without merit.
Many have decried the 2014 decision and the Supreme Court’s rejection of the case as an impediment to technological innovation. Oracle’s victories will make it harder for developers to create new programs, requiring them either to pay the creators of APIs or start from scratch. However, the decision of the lower court and the inevitable appeals to follow may salvage some power for developers in the form of fair-use.
