Why Google winning 'fair use' lawsuit against Oracle is good, bad and ugly

The long drawn courtroom drama between Oracle and Google finally saw a slice of victory for the latter. A jury in a U.S district court unanimously upheld claims by Google that its use of Oracle’s Java development platform to create Android was protected under the fair use provision of copyright law, bringing trial to a close without Oracle winning any of the $9 billion in damages it requested. “The verdict that Android makes fair use of Java APIs represents a win for the Android ecosystem, for the Java programming community, and for software developers who rely on open and free programming languages to build innovative consumer products,” a Google spokesperson tells Tech2 via email. This battle of the tech titans was closely watched by the industry for the gravity of the repercussions this case holds. The case brought to light the ambiguities and the impact that the words ‘infringement of intellectual property’ and ‘fair use’ have. Tech2 spoke to Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research, about the ramifications that the case brings out for the innovation that developers bring in, the concept of open source and the software industry as a whole. “I see the outcome of the lawsuit as good, bad and ugly,” says Gogia. Explaining this theory further, Gogia re-iterates the fact that open source is a huge part of the developer community. “The verdict reinforces the strength in open source as a concept,” he says. Talking about the ‘bad’ part, Gogia shares how this case highlighted the lack of clarity around the legal framework that protects copyrights and intellectual property. He points out that the case was high profile because of the sheer size and clout of the companies involved. “Oracle has the money to fight a case, or even multiple cases. What if this was a smaller company whose intellectual property a bigger company had used,” he questions. “Intellectual property and its fair use are still huge question marks that need to be answered by a legal framework. Otherwise the smaller players, startup communities will suffer,” adds Gogia. While he maintains that he considers the verdict a big win for developers, he says it is also a loss for the community just owing to the nebulous legal scenario. Coming to the ugly, which he sees happening over a longer period of time, Gogia says that the outcome of the case will lead to companies becoming very conservative when it comes to using or sharing proprietary software, thus cutting down on innovation in the industry. Gogia also says that this might not be the end of Oracle vs. Google. He added, “They (Oracle) will not take this lying down. We are looking at the very strong possibility of them filing another lawsuit in another court.” Taking a look at the legal aspect of it in detail, Tech2 spoke to law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. Dev Robinson, National Practice Head - Intellectual Property Rights at the firm says, “The judgement is of significance. It explores the doctrine of fair use, which allows use of limited parts of proprietary codes, without giving rise to a cause of action for infringement. This decision is welcome for Indian software companies as they are presently poised. However, a liberal implementation of the fair use doctrine could ultimately hurt innovation.”