Supreme Court Denies Google Appeal on Oracle Suit -- 2nd Update

By Brent Kendall And Shira Ovide 

WASHINGTON--The Supreme Court denied Google Inc.'s attempt to overturn a ruling in favor of Oracle Corp. in a closely watched case over software copyrights that underscored sharp divisions in the high-tech sector.

The high court's decision Monday left intact a prior ruling that certain kinds of programming instructions are entitled to copyright protection, as Oracle argued. Google and some other industry groups argued that treating the instructions as creative works protected by copyright could hurt the ability of companies and programmers to take advantage of standard software functions and make different programs work together.

The move is the latest development in a case dating to 2010, when Oracle alleged Google's Android smartphone operating system infringed copyrights to Oracle's Java programming technology. The technology, which originated at Sun Microsystems Inc., includes a programming language and a layer of software that helps programs work on multiple kinds of operating systems and hardware.

The justices, without comment, declined to disturb a May 2014 appeals-court ruling in Oracle's favor that reinvigorated the company's case against Google. The appeals court, overruling a trial judge, said 37 packages of prewritten Java programs--known as application programming interfaces, or APIs--were entitled to copyright protection.

The decision to stay out of the case is a win for Oracle, which sells corporate databases and owns Java, a widely used software-programming platform. Oracle had sought over $1 billion in damages and fought vigorously the idea that Google--or any other company--should be allowed to use any part of Java in software or apps without paying Oracle a fee. Each side had said a win for its opponent would seriously impede innovation.

The case had been watched closely in the technology industry because it centered on the ability to copyright APIs, an increasingly prevalent way for different software programs to interact with one another. The 2014 ruling held that APIs can, indeed, be copyrighted. However, it left unsettled Google's separate argument that, even if the Java APIs were subject to copyright, it could use them under copyright law's provision for fair use. The fair use issue will have to be retried in a lower court.

Google had asked the Supreme Court to hear the case and limit how software makers could use copyright law to assert exclusive rights over computer programs. It argued Oracle shouldn't be able to claim copyrights on basic software commands.

Oracle said its computer code was original and creative, and argued that Google's position would undermine important legal protections for software. It said Google should have paid for a license or written all of its own code separately.

The Supreme Court showed some initial interest in the case, asking the Obama administration for its views on whether the court should intervene.

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli responded with a brief that urged the court to sidestep the case, particularly because the fair-use issue hadn't been resolved in the lower court. Mr. Verrilli also said one of Google's main arguments against copyrights on the Java packages was without merit.

A spokesman for Google said: "We will continue to defend the interoperability that has fostered innovation and competition in the software industry."

Oracle General Counsel Dorian Daley said the high court's action "is a win for innovation and for the technology industry that relies on copyright protection to fuel innovation."

Don Clark in San Francisco contributed to this article.

Write to Brent Kendall at [e-mail] and Shira Ovide at [e-mail]

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