Oracle’s Java API Packages are Not Entitled to Copyright Protection

C. Trial and Post-Trial Rulings

Beginning on April 16, 2012, the district court and the jury—on parallel tracks—viewed documents and heard testimony from twenty-four witnesses on copyrightability, infringement, fair use, and Google’s other defenses. Because the parties agreed the district court would decide copyrightability, the court instructed the jury to assume that the structure, sequence, and organization of the 37 API packages was copyrightable. And, the court informed the jury that Google conceded that it copied the declaring code used in the 37 packages verbatim. The court also instructed the jury that Google conceded copying the rangeCheck function and the eight decompiled security files, but that Google maintained that its use of those lines of code was de minimis. See Final Charge to the Jury (Phase One), Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google Inc., 3:10-cv3561 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 30, 2012), ECF No. 1018 at 14 (“With respect to the infringement issues concerning the rangeCheck and other similar files, Google agrees that the accused lines of code and comments came from the copyrighted material but contends that the amounts involved were so negligible as to be de minimis and thus should be excused.”).

On May 7, 2012, the jury returned a verdict finding that Google infringed Oracle’s copyright in the 37 Java API packages and in the nine lines of rangeCheck code, but returned a noninfringement verdict as to eight decompiled security files. The jury hung on Google’s fair use defense.

The parties filed a number of post-trial motions, most of which were ultimately denied. In relevant part, the district court denied Oracle’s motion for JMOL regarding fair use and Google’s motion for JMOL as to the rangeCheck files. Order on Motions for Judgment as a Matter of Law, Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google Inc., No. 3:10- cv-3561 (N.D. Cal. May 10, 2012), ECF No. 1119. The district court granted Oracle’s motion for JMOL of infringement as to the eight decompiled files, however. In its order, the court explained that: (1) Google copied the files in their entirety; (2) the trial testimony revealed that the use of those files was “significant”; and (3) no reasonable jury could find the copying de minimis. Order Granting JMOL on Decompiled Files, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66417, at *6.

On May 31, 2012, the district court issued the primary decision at issue in this appeal, finding that the replicated elements of the Java API packages—including the declarations and their structure, sequence, and organization—were not copyrightable. As to the declaring code, the court concluded that “there is only one way to write” it, and thus the “merger doctrine bars anyone from claiming exclusive copyright ownership of that expression.” Copyrightability Decision, 872 F. Supp. 2d at 998. The court further found that the declaring code was not protectable because “names and short phrases cannot be copyrighted.” Id. As such, the court determined that “there can be no copyright violation in using the identical declarations.” Id.

As to the overall structure, sequence, and organization of the Java API packages, the court recognized that “nothing in the rules of the Java language . . . required that Google replicate the same groupings even if Google was free to replicate the same functionality.” Id. at 999. Therefore, the court determined that “Oracle’s best argument . . . is that while no single name is copyrightable, Java’s overall system of organized names—covering 37 packages, with over six hundred classes, with over six thousand methods—is a ‘taxonomy’ and, therefore, copyrightable.” Id.

Although it acknowledged that the overall structure of Oracle’s API packages is creative, original, and “resembles a taxonomy,” the district court found that it “is nevertheless a command structure, a system or method of operation—a long hierarchy of over six thousand commands to carry out pre-assigned functions”—that is not entitled to copyright protection under Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act. Id. at 999-1000. In reaching this conclusion, the court emphasized that, “[o]f the 166 Java packages, 129 were not violated in any way.” Id. at 1001. And, of the 37 Java API packages at issue, “97 percent of the Android lines were new from Google and the remaining three percent were freely replicable under the merger and names doctrines.” Id. On these grounds, the court dismissed Oracle’s copyright claims, concluding that “the particular elements replicated by Google were free for all to use under the Copyright Act.” Id.

On June 20, 2012, the district court entered final judgment in favor of Google and against Oracle on its claim for copyright infringement, except with respect to the rangeCheck function and the eight decompiled files. As to rangeCheck and the decompiled files, the court entered judgment for Oracle and against Google in the amount of zero dollars, per the parties’ stipulation. Final Judgment, Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google Inc., No. 3:10-cv3561 (N.D. Cal. June 20, 2012), ECF No. 1211. Oracle timely appealed from the portion of the district court’s final judgment entered against it and Google timely crossappealed with respect to rangeCheck and the eight decompiled files. Because this action included patent claims, we have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1).