Google loses Android battle

[Sarkar]

Google just lost a major copyright case that could cost it billions of dollars and change how tech companies approach software development. Another court will decide how much Google owes Oracle in damages.

As of 2016, Oracle was seeking about $9 billion from Google. But because APIs have become much more widespread over the years, a court could decide that Oracle deserves more, said Christopher Carani, a partner with McAndrews, Held & Malloy and a professor at Northwestern's law school.

The Google-Oracle feud has been ongoing since 2010. Java was created by Sun Microsystems back in the 1990s and Oracle acquired the company in 2010. A few months later, Oracle accused Google of using its copyrighted APIs and patents to develop Android and filed a lawsuit. Since then, we have seen the two companies wage a protracted legal battle in US courts.

Google loses Android battle and could owe Oracle billions of dollars

 

[Sarkar]

Oracle has claimed that Android 'destroyed' the Java mobile market and is willing to fight for that, even if it brings down the entire IT playhouse down.

The story runs thus: Google used the Java code, formally owned by Sun Microsystems to create large swaths of the Android code.

That's fine because the code is open-source. However, the Java APIs, now owned by Oracle, are not, and Oracle has long since argued that it deserves a piece of the billions made by Google through the Android platform.

Google has indicated it is planning an appeal to the Supreme Court, after losing the latest round of a long-running intellectual property battle against Oracle that could have far-reaching implications for the software industry.

A Google vs Oracle copyright ruling could well kill small scale open source projects | TheINQUIRER