14 DAY TRIAL // The battle between Google and Oracle over Java seems like it will just go on forever, as Oracle filed another appeal.
Just when you thought the row between the companies had reached an end, a new appeal was filed, attacking the 2016 Google win, documents obtained by The Register reveal.
Oracle is once more taking the case to court, saying that Google’s use of Java’s API in Android is not, in fact, “fair use.” The company vowed Google wouldn’t have the last word, and it did everything in its power to prevent it, even if it took nine months to get here.
The company argues that it has the right to a new trial because the district court undermined Oracle’s case, which led the jury to a wrong decision. One of the things Oracle points out in its filing is that the court believed Google when it said that Android was limited to smartphones while Java was for PCs. Oracle, on the other hand, wants to prove that, in fact, Java and Android compete as platforms for wearables, cars, and TVs.
They believe that had their evidence been rightly presented, it “would have eviscerated Google’s theory of ‘tranformative’ use, the core of its fair-use defense.”
The thing is that Oracle is once more filing the action with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which three years ago ruled that APIs could be copyrighted, which indicates Oracle hopes to get a favorable decision this time around. If not, we’re sure they’ll just appeal again anyway.
A long battle
In May 2016, Google managed to convince a district court jury that using 37 Java APIs met fair-use conditions. This saved the Mountain View company from paying up to $9 billion, as claimed by Oracle.
“Google copied thousands of lines of copyrighted code from Oracle's Java programming platform. Google concedes it put that code to the same use in the competing Android platform, for what this Court already has deemed ‘entirely commercial’ purposes. And Google reaped billions of dollars while leaving Oracle's Java business in tatters,” Oracle's lawyers say in the brief.
Whether the case goes through remains to be seen. The same goes for whether Google or Oracle will win this one out. So far, results have been mixed, but the war has been going on for five years and it looks like it won't end until someone wins by a landslide.