Jury partial verdict: Google infringed Oracle copyrights

01604updated 06:00 pm EDT, Mon May 7, 2012 No decision on fair use, trial continues

The jury assigned to the Oracle versus Google lawsuit has returned a partial verdict. On the matter of API copyright infringement, Google has been found to have violated the sequence, structure, and organization of 37 Java API copyrights. However, whether or not the infringement was fair use remains to be decided, as the jury was unable to break through a previously reported impasse on the matter. Judge Alsop is not waiting for motions from either side, and is immediately moving forward with the next phase, the patent phase, of the trial.Google's legal team immediately declared intent to file for a mistrial, based on their stance that the infringement can't be answered affirmatively without a ruling on the matter of fair use, or if APIs are copyrightable. Both Google and Oracle are required to respond to various copyright questions no later than May 10. Oracle has already requested a judgement as a matter of law against the fair use argument. Google's stance remains that the Java code in question was utilized fairly, and also requests a dismissal as a matter of law.

Closing arguments for the first phase of Oracle vs Google took place on April 27. The core of Oracle's argument is the repeated re-use of Oracle copyrighted code. Google is claiming a "fair use" defense versus the infringement claims. Oracle is demanding $2 billion in Java licensing fees for Android, but have been instructed to request less. Judge Alsop read documents from Google last week in court that prove that the Android division is losing money.

By Electronista Staff

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