Google Won’t Face Some Oracle Copyright Claims, Judge Rules
September 15, 2011, 6:24 PM EDTBy Karen Gullo
(Updates with judge’s reasoning in second paragraph.)
Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., the largest Internet search company, won’t have to face part of Oracle Corp.’s claim that it infringed copyrights for the Java programming language.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco today ruled that some of the material Oracle claimed was infringed isn’t protected by copyright.
The copyright claim is part of Oracle’s lawsuit against the search-engine company alleging that the Android operating system for mobile devices infringes patents that Oracle owns after acquiring Sun Microsystems Inc.
Oracle accused Google of infringing 12 lines of code and 37 “specifications” for programming interfaces. Alsup said in his ruling that the names of the specifications that Google copied aren’t protected by copyright and ruled that the Mountain View, California-based company must face infringement claims on the other material.
Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, seeks billions of dollars in damages and a court order for the destruction of all products that violate its copyrights.
The case is Oracle America Inc. v. Google Inc., 10-03561, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
--Editors: Michael Hytha, Andrew Dunn
To contact the reporter about this story: Karen Gullo in San Francisco federal court at kgullo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
