High Court Oracle Copyright Ruling Is A Boon For Innovation – Law360

Law360 (April 8, 2021, 4:48 PM EDT) — On April 5, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-2 in favor of Google in the case of Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc.,[1] a landmark case for computer software protections under U.S. copyright law.

The court addressed the applicability of the copyright law to protecting a software interface, also known as an application programming interface, or API, particularly in the context of whether Google’s use of another’s API to create new computer programs constitutes fair use.[2]

This decision creates law useful in guiding software engineers on how to develop new computer code using existing APIs, thereby supporting further growth in the…