Oracle's big-money case against Google gets new life

An appeals court on Tuesday gave Oracle another shot at wringing billions of dollars from Google in a keenly watched legal battle over the use of freely available Java software code.

A federal appellate court revived Oracle's case, ruling that the application programming interface (API) code at issue is protected by copyright law and sending the case back to the original judge to figure out how much Google owes the business software titan.

A trial two years ago ended with a jury deciding that Google did not unfairly use Java code, saving the internet giant from a possible multibillion-dollar verdict. The appellate court on Tuesday disagreed, saying the software is entitled to copyright protection.

Oracle, a major business software and cloud firm, sought billions in damages from Google over the search engine company's use of Java programming language in its Android smartphone operating system.

But Google and its allies argued that extending copyright protection to bits of code, called application programming interfaces, or APIs, would threaten innovation.

The case was closely watched by the tech industry because of its implications for software innovation and copyright law.

Google, at the time, said that its victory at trial was "a win for the Android ecosystem; for the Java programming community and for software developers who rely on open and free programming languages to build innovative consumer products."

Oracle, which obtained Java when it acquired Sun Microsystems in 2009, had been seeking some $9 billion in damages.

Dorian Daley, Oracle's general counsel, welcomed the latest decision, saying it "upholds fundamental principles of copyright law and makes clear that Google violated the law."