Oracle vs Google: Frontend

    Today, the jury handed down a verdict according to which Google did not violate Oracle patents. This is an important victory for the forces of good, but the main decision is yet to come. However, let's go back a little bit.

    Judge William Alsup (the one who knows how to program in Java ) broke the decision into 3 phases. In the first phase, the jury decided whether Google violated Oracle’s copyright on 37 different APIs used in Java or on a number of lines of code (including the widely known rangeCheck function) in its Android. Phase 2 examined Oracle's patent claims. In the third phase (depending on the decision in the previous stages), the amount of damage to the plaintiff was determined.

    The jury issued a paradoxical verdict with their first decision: Google did not violate Oracle’s rights to documentation and comments in the code, but violated copyright on the API by cloning the Java structure and interface. Known 9 lines were also counted as a violation. At the same time, the jury could not answer the question of whether such a violation fits into the concept of “fair use”. The judge stated that the jury may not answer this part of the question, after which Google filed a motion to annul the verdict, referring to the precedent in which cases of copyright infringement could be considered only in conjunction with the decision on “fair use”.

    The second part deals with allegations of violation of two patents by Google: one of them concerned the improvement of the mechanism of static initialization of arrays using the preloader, andthe second (more important) - details of working with "symbolic links" of the Java hybrid interpreter compiler during compilation directly into executable code. Google claimed that both patented mechanisms were not used by him in the Dalvik virtual machine and the jury fully supported it.

    The jury is now dismissed and the judge alone has to answer the main question - can software APIs be subject to copyright . He is expected to do this next week.

    Also popular now: