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By John K. Higgins
May 5, 2021 10:19 AM PT
A legal dispute between Google and Oracle over software copyrights has now been decided, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Google. The Court's decision in
Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. was released on April 5, 2021.
The decision ended 10 years of tortuous litigation. While the Court definitively addressed the dispute between the two high tech giants, it put aside answering one critical infringement factor. Still, the ruling appeared to reduce the legal leverage available to software developers who seek copyright protection.
Oracle contends the decision could have a chilling effect on copyright protection. "The Google platform just got bigger and market power greater -- the barriers to entry higher and the ability to compete lower. They stole Java and spent a decade litigating as only a monopolist can. This behavior is exactly why regulatory authorities around the world and in the United States are examining Google's business practices," said Dorian Daley, executive vice president and general counsel at Oracle.