The legal war between Oracle and Google over Android is not over, as Oracle just started another battle with a new appeal.
For those unfamiliar with the case, Oracle and Google have long been fighting in court in two separate cases, in a bid to determine whether Google should pay Oracle a hefty sum for parts of code copied from Oracle's Java programming language and used in Google's Android mobile operating system.
Oracle vs Google Copyright Infringement
At the heart of the matter were Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), which are bits of code that enable various computer programs to communicate with each other. Google used Java APIs in Android and Oracle sought to get billions of dollars for it.
More specifically, Oracle wanted to get Google to pay $9.3 billion in damages over the Java-Android software copyright infringement. The legal battle has been ongoing for several years now - since 2012 - and it's not over yet.
Oracle suffered a defeat back in May 2016, when Google won a jury vote ruling that implementing 37 Java APIs into Android did not constitute an infringement upon the copyright Oracle owned.
Over the years, the legal tussle has gone back and forth and each side won in various stages, but Google was not found liable to pay for the use of Java APIs. Oracle promised back in May to file an appeal and it has now made good on its word, starting a new chapter in the legal battle against Google.
The battle back in May revolved around how much, if at all, Google should pay Oracle, after a previous trial had found that Google did indeed copy some bits of Oracle's Java code.
While Oracle asked for $9.3 billion in damages, Google argued that copying those bits of Java code fell under the copyright law's "fair use" provision, meaning that it was free to use. A 10-people jury unanimously sided with Google and that's what Oracle is appealing now.
Oracle Appeal Against Google
In the latest appeal filing, Oracle now argues that it didn't get the chance to share everything it wanted to share with the jury of the trial in May, Business Insider reports. Additional facts the jury should have heard include all the ways Oracle believes Android hurts Java, including how Android may eventually trump Java in its main domain - as a programming language for creating applications and web applications for PCs.
"Although Google's project to bring Android's full functionality to Chromebooks was underway well before the close of discovery, Google falsely denied its existence in written discovery responses," Oracle argues in its appeal filing. "For example, three months after launching the secret project, Google denied that it 'intend[ed] to use some or all of ANDROID, including ... the 37 JAVA API PACKAGES, to create a platform that runs on desktops and laptops.'"
"Google started trial knowing a fact it kept secret from everyone else: It was days away from announcing that 'the full functionality of Android would soon be working on desktops and laptops, not just on smartphones and tablets,'" Oracle adds.
The legal war between Oracle and Google has been closely monitored by the tech industry because it could have a chilling ripple effect. Some critics believe that should Google be forced to pay a hefty fine to Oracle, it could have a negative effect on some of the ways in which software developers use and share code.
