Interfaces on Trial 3.0: Oracle America v. Google and Beyond

Abstract

This is the third volume of a history of the global legal debate concerning copyright and competition in the software industry. The debate has centered on two related issues. First, does copyright protect the elements of computer programs necessary to achieve interoperability? Second, to the extent that those elements are unprotectable, can copyright law nevertheless prevent the incidental to uncover those unprotectable elements?I wrote the first volume, INTERFACES ON TRIAL: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND INTEROPERABILITY ON THE GLOBAL SOFTWARE INDUSTRY, with Masanobu Katoh. It was published by Westview Press in 1995.The second volume, INTERFACES ON TRIAL 2.0, also written with Masanobu Katoh, was published by MIT Press in 2011. It covers the developments in this field between 1995 and 2010. The third volume, INTERFACES ON TRIAL 3.0: ORACLE AMERICA v. GOOGLE AND BEYOND, picks off where the second volume left off, focusing in particular on the Oracle America v. Google litigation concerning Google’s copying of certain elements of the Java Application Program Interface (API). This litigation, initiated by Oracle in 2010, is still ongoing. However, there now is a break in the action as the 2016 fair use jury verdict is on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Because the CAFC may not issue a ruling until 2018, it made sense to me to release this volume now.