Google Beats Oracle Copyright Suit, Wiping Away $9 Billion Claim

By Joel Rosenblatt, Bloomberg News

Google won a jury verdict that kills Oracle Corp.’s claim to a $9 billion slice of the search giant’s Android phone business.

Oracle contended that Google needed a license to use its Java programming language to develop Android, the operating system in 80 percent of the world’s mobile devices. Jurors in San Francisco federal court on Thursday rejected that argument and concluded Google made fair use of the code under copyright law.

A decision against Google had the potential to give significantly more weight to software copyrights, and to spur litigation to protect those added ...