Partner Chad Rutkowski was quoted in articles published by Intellectual Property Magazine and Law360 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 5, 2021, ruling Google v. Oracle that Google had made fair use of Oracle's software when it incorporated the code into the Android operating system, clearing Google of potentially billions of dollars in damages.
In Intellectual Property Magazine, Rutkowski is quoted as saying, “One of the most important sentences in the case is the acknowledgement that an API’s declaring code ‘differs, however, from many other kinds of copyrightable code.’ I think that recognition is key here, as the whole point an API is to enable interoperability between programs and adoption of a programming language. Here, the court went to great pains to point out the declaring code occupied a rare space, almost a function within a function, that, while protectable, ramped up the fair use considerations.”
Rutkowski told Law360: “If something as narrow as taking code from a desktop to a mobile platform counts as a transformative use, I think that gives future litigants a lot of arguments to make.”
Intellectual Property Magazine (registration required).
Law360 (registration required).