Google has won a major US court battle with software firm Oracle after a jury ruled it did not unfairly appropriate parts of the Java programming language.<\/p>\n
Oracle had argued that Google had infringed its copyright and had sought nearly $9bn (\u00a36bn) in damages.<\/p>\n
The outcome was eagerly awaited by software developers who feared that a victory for Oracle might encourage more such legal actions.<\/p>\n
The company says it will appeal against the decision.<\/p>\n
Google uses Java in its Android smartphone operating system which powers about 80% of the world’s mobile devices.<\/p>\n
The company had argued that extending copyright protection to pieces of code called APIs (application programming interfaces) would threaten innovation.<\/p>\n
The jury in San Francisco agreed that copyright law allowed “fair use”‘ of the Java elements as they were only a part of a larger system Google had created for a new purpose.<\/p>\n
“Today’s verdict that Android makes fair use of Java APIs represents a win for the Android ecosystem, for the Java programming community, and for software developers who rely on open and free programming languages to build innovative consumer products,” a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
The legal battle began in 2010 and the two firms first faced each other in court in May 2012. A federal judge ruled against Oracle, but the company then appealed. After legal wrangling, the case was sent back to court.<\/p>\n
Despite Thursday’s outcome, Oracle lawyer Dorian Daley said it would pursue the matter further.<\/p>\n
“We strongly believe that Google developed Android by illegally copying core Java technology to rush into the mobile device market,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Oracle brought this lawsuit to put a stop to Google’s illegal behaviour. We believe there are numerous grounds for appeal and we plan to bring this case back to the federal circuit on appeal.”<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Google has won a major US court battle with software firm Oracle after a jury ruled it did not unfairly appropriate parts of the Java programming language. Oracle had argued that Google had infringed its copyright and had sought nearly $9bn (\u00a36bn) in damages. The outcome was eagerly awaited by software developers who feared that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":217430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n