Google Wins 10-Year Intellectual Property Lawsuit Against Oracle

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The intellectual property lawsuit between U.S. information technology companies Google and Oracle, which lasted for 10 years, has finally ended with Google's victory.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

According to AP News and others, on the 5th (local time), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6 to 2 in favor of Google in the intellectual property infringement lawsuit filed by Oracle, which holds the intellectual property rights to the Java programming language, against Google, which created the Android smartphone operating system (OS).

Justice Stephen Breyer stated in the ruling that although Google’s use of Java code is recognized as copyrighted, "Nevertheless, it is considered fair use. Google's actions do not constitute copyright infringement."

The Supreme Court's ruling overturned the appellate court decision that had previously sided with Oracle. The first trial court ruled in favor of Google, but the appellate court ruled that Google violated copyright law by using Java code. As a result, Google faced a potential compensation liability of at least trillions of won, but it dramatically succeeded in reversing the decision at the Supreme Court.

The legal battle between Google and Oracle has continued for over 10 years since Oracle filed a lawsuit in 2010 demanding $9 billion (approximately 10 trillion won) in royalties for intellectual property infringement.