[ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) — The Trump administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject an appeal by Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google, boosting Oracle Corp.\u2019s bid to collect more than $8 billion in royalties for Google\u2019s use of copyrighted programming code in the Android operating system.<\/p>\n
The administration weighed in on the high-stakes case on the same day that President Donald Trump attended a re-election campaign fundraiser in California hosted by Oracle\u2019s co-founder, billionaire Larry Ellison.<\/p>\n
Google is challenging an appeals court ruling that it violated Oracle copyrights when it included some Oracle-owned Java programming code in Android. The dispute has split Silicon Valley, pitting developers of software code against companies that use the code to create programs.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s \u201cverbatim copying\u201d of Oracle\u2019s code into a competing product wasn\u2019t necessary to foster innovation, the U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco said Wednesday in a filing with the court.<\/p>\n
Francisco had asked the high court in September, on behalf of the administration, not to hear Google\u2019s appeal. The Supreme Court usually, though not always, takes the solicitor general\u2019s advice about pending appeals. In this case, the justices agreed to take the case and are scheduled to hold oral arguments on March 24.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe Obama Solicitor General Don Virelli supported Oracle\u2019s position in Oracle v. Google, a position maintained by Trump Solicitor General Noel Francisco,\u201d Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said in an email.<\/p>\n
Google contends the appeals court ruling, if not reversed, will make it harder to develop new applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cA remarkable range of consumers, developers, computer scientists, and businesses agree that open software interfaces promote innovation and that no single company should be able to monopolize creativity by blocking software tools from working together,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cOpenness and interoperability have helped developers create a variety of new products that consumers use to communicate, work, and play across different platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francisco asked the justices to give the government 10 minutes to argue its position in the case. The U.S. has \u201csubstantial interest\u201d in issues regarding copyright law and the re-use of computer code at the heart of the dispute, he said in a filing.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Mark Bergen and Nico Grant.<\/p>\n
To contact the reporter on this story: Malathi Nayak in San Francisco at mnayak21@bloomberg.net<\/p>\n
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg, Joe Schneider<\/p>\n
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com<\/p>\n
Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.<\/p>\n
\u00a92020 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n