Oracle v. Google judge asks for comment on EU court ruling

The copyright phase of the Oracle v. Google trial is winding down. While the world waits for a jury verdict on the facts, the judge overseeing the case is wrestling with the complexities of the law.

Oracle has argued that the "structure, sequence and organization" of the Java API is eligible for copyright protection, while Google disagrees. Judge William Alsup asked each party to submit a 20-page brief answering a series of 13 in-depth questions about the Java API and the relevant precedents. Among other things, he asked the parties to weigh in on the implications of this week's EU court decision that allowing functional characteristics of programming languages to be copyrighted would "monopolize" ideas. Some of Judge Alsup's comments in the courtroom in recent days suggested that he is skeptical of Oracle's position.