Oracle CEO Larry Ellison speaks at the All Things D conference in California on Wednesday, a day before judge dismissed Oracle's case against Google. Photo: Asa Mathat/All Things D
Google was free to replicate and use elements of Oracle's Java programming language when it developed Android software, a US federal judge said in dismissing Oracle's claim that Google infringed its copyrights.
US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said in a ruling today that ''copyright law does not confer ownership over any and all ways'' to implement Java.
Oracle sued Google in 2010 alleging the search-engine provider infringed copyrights when it used Oracle's Java application programming elements to create Android.
Google has violated no copyright, it being undisputed that Google's implementations are different," Alsup said.
Jurors found on May 7 that Google infringed Oracle's copyrights and deadlocked on whether it was "fair use". Without a jury verdict on that question, Alsup said Oracle couldn't seek any damages, which it had estimated at $US1 billion, from Google.
The jury found however that Google infringed Oracle's copyrights for nine lines of code; Oracle can seek about $US150,000 in statutory damages for that.
The same jury ruled May 23 that Google's program did not infringe two Java patents at issue.
Oracle will appeal the latest ruling, said Deborah Hellinger, a company spokeswoman.
Undermining protection
"This ruling, if permitted to stand, would undermine the protection for innovation and invention in the United States and make it far more difficult to defend intellectual property rights against companies anywhere in the world that simply takes them as their own," Hellinger said in an e-mail.
Oracle acquired Java when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2010. Sun and Google had unsuccessful talks about co-developing Android years before.
Oracle alleged that Google should have paid for a license to use Java to develop Android, now running in 300 million mobile devices. Google said its use of Java was fair and legal.
Alsup said before the trial that while the jury would be asked to decide whether Google infringed Oracle's copyrights and patents, he would ultimately rule on whether Java's software tools were covered by copyright.
Copyright law
Alsup said today that his ruling didn't mean that Java's tools were free for anyone to use without a licence, rather that the elements that Google copied were free for anyone to use under copyright law.
The judge dismissed Google's request for a new trial on copyright infringement, saying in a ruling that the issue is now moot.
"The court's decision upholds the principle that open and interoperable computer languages form an essential basis for software development," Jim Prosser, a Google spokesman, said in an e-mail.
