Jury Determines Google's Android Did Not Infringe on Oracle's Patents

A jury has determined that Google's Android did not infringe on Oracle's patents after over a week of deliberations, reports The Verge.

Following the decision the jury has been dismissed and now the case must deal with copyright infringement allegations.

While the jury did find that Android infringed Oracle copyrights by its use of the the structure, sequence, and organization of 37 Java APIs, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether it was covered under fair use, rendering the verdict moot at the moment. The jury found that Google had infringed on only one other copyright count - the use of nine lines of rangeCheck code - though Judge Alsup later ruled that Google had also infringed by its use of eight Java test files in Android, adding a second minor infringement count to Google's plate.


Judge Alsup hasn't ruled yet on whether the SSO of the Java APIs can be copyrighted. If they can not, Oracle will receive damages from Google for the rangeCheck and test file usage, at a maximum of $150,000 per infringement count. If they can be copyrighted, all three infringement counts will likely be bundled together to be dealt with in a new trial.

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