By Wendy Lee, San Francisco Chronicle
Nearly six years after it filed its original complaint, Oracle is bringing Google to court Monday in a bid to get the Mountain View tech giant to pay for copyright infringement.
The dispute began in 2010. Google had used source code from Java, a programming language owned by Oracle, in some programming interfaces for Android, an operating system primarily for smartphones. Oracle accused Google of copyright infringement in its use of Java and sought damages. Oracle acquired Java with its purchase of Sun Microsystems in 2010. Google argued it should be permitted to use Java in programming interfaces under the “fair use” doctrine.
A jury in 2012 couldn’t come to an agreement on whether the case fell under fair use. That year, a district court ruled that the source code involved in the case did not qualify for copyright protection. Oracle appealed, and in 2014, a federal appeals court reversed the decision, saying the code could be covered by copyright.
Now, a new jury will decide whether it agrees with Google’s argument that the source code falls under fair use. If the jury dismisses Google’s argument, then jurors will “consider Oracle’s damages claims,” said Deborah Hellinger, Oracle’s spokeswoman. She declined to comment on how much Oracle would be seeking in damages. A Google spokesman declined to comment on the case.
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