Supreme Court declines Google appeal in copyright case

The Supreme Court declined to hear Google’s appeal of an ongoing dispute with Oracle over whether certain elements of the Java programming language can be copyrighted. At the core of the case is a question of whether certain elements of software can be freely copied to make different systems work together. When Google was developing the Android smartphone operating system, it copied parts of Java so that Java software could work on its system. Application programming interfaces (API), as such technical elements are called, are used by many software developers to allow different systems to communicate with one another. Oracle, which had bought the company that made Java, sued Google for using the API without permission -- setting up the current legal battle.

With its decision June 29, the Supreme Court let a 2014 ruling in favor of Oracle stand and sent the case back to a lower court. "We will continue to defend the interoperability that has fostered innovation and competition in the software industry,” said a Google representative. Oracle painted the court’s decision as protecting, not hindering, innovation. "Today's Supreme Court decision is a win for innovation and for the technology industry that relies on copyright protection to fuel innovation,” said Oracle’s General Counsel Dorian Daley.