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Oracle alleges that Google built Android on 'stolen' technology, as their 10-year legal battle officially goes to the US Supreme Court

Sundar Pichai
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai Stephen Lam/Reuters

  • The 10-year-old legal brawl between Oracle and Google could finally be resolved as it goes before the US Supreme Court this year.
  • The battle centers on Oracle's claim that Google unfairly infringed the copyright of key parts of its Java technology to build the Android operating system. Google rejects Oracle's allegations, saying it is fighting for "open innovation" in the tech industry.
  • Google announced this week that it has filed its opening brief. "We're asking the Court to reaffirm the importance of the software interoperability that has allowed millions of developers to write millions of applications that work on billions of devices," Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer, wrote in a blog post
  • But Oracle spokesperson Deborah Hellinger countered: "Google opted to ignore standard industry licensing policies and build its business by stealing Oracle's IP [intellectual property]."
  • Last week, an expert suggested that under Oracle's view of the case, the database giant could itself be accused of copyright infringement over the way it integrates with Amazon Web Services cloud storage.
  • Click here for more BI Prime stories.
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In a legal brawl that has dragged on for 10 years, Google says it's fighting for "open innovation," while Oracle accuses the Internet giant of "stealing" its technology.

The dispute could finally be settled this year as Oracle's copyright infringement suit against Google over its Java technology goes before the US Supreme Court this year.

At the heart of the battle is Oracle's claim that Google stole critical parts of its Java technology for its Android operating system. Google rejects the claim, arguing that Oracle cannot own this type of code — known as APIs, or application programming interfaces — which allows programs to talk to each other.

These kinds of APIs are the industry-standard way to build integrations between pieces of software and web services, and Google and its supporters have long argued that an Oracle victory in this matter could have a chilling effect on the larger market.

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Google reaffirmed its position on Monday when it announced that it just filed its opening brief before the Supreme Court.

"We're asking the Court to reaffirm the importance of the software interoperability that has allowed millions of developers to write millions of applications that work on billions of devices," Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer, wrote in a blog post

Oracle says Google's use of its Java API is unethical and accuses the tech behemoth of theft.

"Ethical developers and businesses around the world continue to recognize the value of Java and take advantage of our licenses to drive innovation and profit," Oracle spokesperson Deborah Hellinger told Business Insider in an email. 

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"Unfortunately, Google opted to ignore standard industry licensing policies and build its business by stealing Oracle's IP [intellectual property]."

A decade-long battle

The Java programming language was created in the early 1990s by James Gosling, the renowned computer scientist of server maker Sun Microsystems. Oracle acquired the technology when it bought Sun in 2010.

Google developed its own version of Java for Android, but used the original Java code that made it possible for programs to communicate. A few months after buying Sun, Oracle sued Google, accusing the company of trampling on its intellectual property rights.

"Oracle offers several licensing options for Java," Hellinger, the Oracle spokesperson, said. But she said Google "would prefer to live in a world unencumbered by intellectual property rights."

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"In the real world copyrights are an essential protection and incentive for innovation," Hellinger added.

Google's legal fight with Oracle has won the support of other tech companies and organizations, who are worried about the way the case could affect the way software developers operate. 

For example, the Electronic Frontier Foundation had argued that making it legal for companies to copyright APIs "would allow companies to dangerously hold up important interoperability functionality that developers and users rely on everyday."

Oracle itself under scrutiny

Last week, Charles Duan of the R Street Institute, a Washington DC-based think tank, suggested that Oracle could also be accused of copyright infringement because, like other companies, it uses an Amazon API to access the cloud giant's data storage platform. 

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Oracle said it uses the Amazon API based on a license related to the open-source platform software managed by the Apache Software Foundation, which "allows downstream users to copy and modify code, and use the code in their own projects, with few restrictions."

But Duan said Oracle's explanation raises key questions about its arguments in the Google case. "Oracle's copyright theory could turn almost anything you do with a computer—from reading an online document to watching a video—into a legal minefield," Duan wrote in Ars Technica. "Giving companies gatekeeper power over competition through copyright law cannot bode well for a robustly competitive software marketplace."

In his blog post, Walker, the Google chief legal officer, cited the argument of another tech giant, Microsoft, which has supported Google's position. In its filing, he said, Microsoft argued that consumers "expect to be able to take a photo on their Apple phone, save it onto Google's cloud servers, and edit it on their Surface tablets." 

"Software interfaces are the access points that allow computer programs to connect to each other, like plugs and sockets," Walker said. "Imagine a world in which every time you went to a different building, you needed a different plug to fit the proprietary socket, and no one was allowed to create adapters."

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Got a tip about Google, Oracle or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at bpimentel@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @benpimentel or send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.

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