Is Software Code Copyrightable? The US Supreme Court Will Decide.

On October 7, 2020, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Google v. Oracle America. The issues in this case are: (i) whether software code and the organizational structure of a programming language are copyrightable; and (ii) whether use of a software interface in the context of creating a new computer program constitutes fair use.

In 2007, Google tried to launch its Android phone and used parts of Oracle’s java software code to do so, letting developers create apps without using new code in the process. This code called application programming interfaces (APIs) allows different software products to communicate with each other. Java code was created back in the 1990s by Sun Microsystems. Oracle bought the company and the Java code in 2010 and sued Google for copyright infringement. Google argued the parts of code they used are not copyright protected.

The US Supreme Court has until June 2021 to issue a ruling. The outcome of this case could impact the future of software development and innovation. See, c-span.org