US government backs Oracle in Java API copyright battle with Google

US government believes that Oracle is entitled to copyright its APIs, meaning that the likes of Google will have to pay a licence fee to use them

The US government has sided with Oracle in its legal dispute with Google on whether APIs should be protected by copyright.

Oracle has insisted that APIs should be protected by paptent law, while Google believes the opposite. The case will ripple through the whole of the software industry, setting a precedent that software firms who want to use APIs may have to pay a licence fee.

Google uses Java in its Android operating system for smartphones, but Oracle won a federal appeals court ruling last year that allows it to copyright parts of Java. The court determined that Google had copied the structure and organisation of the Java API. Google is appealing to the US Supreme Court, saying that it should be free to use Java without paying a licensing fee.

It believes that an Oracle victory would prevent "an enormous amount of innovation" because software developers have be inhibited from building upon their peers' work. For its part, Oracle believes that copyright protection will spur on innovation in software.

The Supreme Court asked the US government to weigh in on the case, and US solicitor general Donald Verrilli said that Google's argument lacked merit as APIs are no different to other computer code. Verrilli therefore suggested that the case does not need further review by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case by the end of its term in June.

Oracle said that the decision "affirms the importance of copyright protection as an incentive for software innovation".

"While we're disappointed, we look forward to supporting the clear language of the law and defending the concepts of interoperability that have traditionally contributed to innovation in the software industry," Google said in response to the government filing.

The government's outcome will also come as a blow to 77 scientists including internet pioneer Vint Cerf, who submitted to the court last year that APIs should be free and open as some have been since the IT industry began.