Question

Prepare a legal Brief for one of the following upcoming Supreme Court Cases:

A) Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.
- Does copyright protection extend to a software interface? Does petitioner’s use of a software interface in the context of creating a new computer program constitute fair use?

Answer 1

Legal Brief:

Style:   Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.

           California Supreme Court

Procedural History:

At preliminary hearing, the plaintiff won due to lack of cause (Federal Circuit held decision in favour of Plaintiff).

Defendant won lack of cause. Applets court revised (Next hearing Plaintiff lost case)

Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s decision due to lack of causes (In favour of Oracle (plaintiff))

Google filed a case as cert petition with the Supreme Court in order to review both Federal Circuit decisions.

Issue:

1. Weather the Java APIs in question were protected under copyright. Does copyright protection extend to a software interface?
2. Does petitioner’s use of a software interface in the context of creating a new computer program constitute fair use?

Rules:

1. Section 102(b) of copyright protection does not extend to non-copyrightable elements. “These are any idea, procedure, process, and system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.”
2. Merger doctrine– It states that if there is limited ways to express any idea, copyright law not protect expression as it is merged with the idea.

Way Forward:

The order of court does not forecloses the copyright protection as the copyright protection is extended to software interface too. The petitioner uses the software interface in the context of creating a new computer program which does not constitute a fair use.