Oracle Corporation (ORCL) won a major victory on Friday after a U.S. appeals court ruled in favor of the firm’s ongoing legal battle against Google (GOOGL) over Java programming copyright protection, reports Reuters.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington has reversed a 2010 ruling which had decided that Oracle could not claim patent copyright protection on parts of Java programming, tools that the company acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2010. But on Friday the three-judge Federal Circuit panel reversed that ruling.
[via Reuters] “We conclude that a set of commands to instruct a computer to carry out desired operations may contain expression that is eligible for copyright protection,” Federal Circuit Judge Kathleen O’Malley wrote.Oracle argued in their patent infringement allegations, which centered around Google’s Android OS — the world’s best-selling mobile platform — that the search giant “improperly incorporated parts of Java” into Android. The database-software maker is currently seeking roughly $1 billion in damages.
Oracle initially sued Google back in 2010 for $6.1 billion on its copyright claims, a figure that was rejected back in 2011 by a San Francisco federal judge who ruled that Oracle could not claim protections on parts of Java programming language.
Oracle General Counsel Dorian Daley called the U.S. appeals court decision a “win” for an industry “that relies on copyright protection to fuel innovation.” Google said it set a “damaging precedent for computer science and software development” and was considering its options, the Reuters report said.
Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
