Google may lose major patent case with big ramifications for Android

In an Oracle vs. Google appeal case, the judges appear to be siding with Oracle although there isn’t a ruling in the case yet. In the spring of 2012, Google won the trial against Oracle, which sued the company for allegedly copying 37 Java APIs from Oracle-acquired Java in the development of Android. 

The most dramatic outcome of the Oracle v. Google trial in spring 2012 wasn’t anything the jury said; it was US District Judge William Alsup’s finding that programming APIs can’t be copyrighted. That sweeping ruling made the trial a total win for Google, and Alsup’sopinion (PDF) is strongly supported by app developers who don’t want to face legal threats for using simple “declaring code.”