Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.

Oracle America, Inc. owns the copyright to Java SE, a widely used computer platform. In 2005, Google acquired Android and built a mobile operating system. To enable millions of Java programmers to work with Android, Google copied approximately 11,500 lines of code from the Java SE Application Programming Interface (API) without permission. Oracle sued Google for copyright infringement. The case went through years of litigation. A jury initially found fair use, but the Federal Circuit reversed, holding the copied code was copyrightable and Google's use was not fair. The Supreme Court granted review. On April 5, 2021, the Court reversed the Federal Circuit, holding that Google's copying of the Java SE API was a fair use as a matter of law.

On April 5, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled 6-2 in favor of Google. The Court assumed for argument's sake that the Java API code was copyrightable but held that Google's copying constituted fair use as a matter of law. The decision reversed the Federal Circuit's ruling and ended the decade-long litigation, sparing Google from potential billions in damages.

The central dispute was whether Google's unauthorized copying of 11,500 lines of Oracle's Java API declaring code to build the Android operating system constituted "fair use" under U.S. copyright law, thereby exempting Google from liability, or whether it was an infringing use of Oracle's copyrightable software interface.

The ruling was widely regarded as a landmark decision for the software industry. It provided greater legal certainty for developers using APIs to create interoperable and innovative products. The decision was praised by Google and consumer groups as a victory for interoperability and competition, while Oracle criticized it as undermining copyright protection. Legal scholars noted the ruling's potential influence on fair use analysis for other copyrightable works, including art, music, and television.