One of the recent cases regarding intellectual property is Google v. Oracle that has moved to the Supreme Court. Oracle accuses Google of unfair copyright infringement in its use of Java APIs for its Android applications (Vaughan-Nichols, 2020). The United States District Court for the Northern District of California had ruled in favor of Google based fair use. This decision was reversed by the Federal Circuit court, which forced Google to move the case to the Supreme Court ( Menell, 2016) .
An intellectual property owner has the patent for the property or invention. In this case, Oracle owns the Java APIs. Having a patent means that one has the right to benefit from any income or benefits generated from the property. It is also the right of the intellectual property owner to either give permission, license, or allow another company to use the intellectual property. Most intellectual property owners license their inventions and, in the process, earn money from those licenses. In case the intellectual property owner feels that their rights have been violated, then he or she has the right to sue the competitor over copyright infringement as Oracle did with Google. Oracle argues that Google's use of Java APIs does not amount to fair use, and instead, Google should pay for damages associated with the use of Java APIs without permission from Oracle (Vaughan-Nichols, 2020). It is also within the rights of the intellectual property owner to remove a patent and make the invention public, which means that one can use the property without being sued for copyright infringement. Although the US Supreme Court has not determined the case between Google and Oracle, the outcome will shape the future of much litigation in the tech world.
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References
Menell, P. S. (2016). API Copyrightability Bleak House: Unraveling and Repairing the" Oracle V. Google" Jurisdictional Mess. Berkeley Technology Law Journal , 1515-1595.
Vaughan-Nichols, S. J. (2020). The Supreme Court will decide software development's future in Google v. Oracle. ZDNet. https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-supreme-court-will-decide-software-developments-future-in-google-v-oracle/
