Java Dispute Drags Oracle And Google Back To Court

(RTTNews) - A six-year dispute between Oracle Corp. (ORCL) and Alphabet Inc.'s Google (GOOGL, GOOG) over software copyrights heads back to court Monday for a trial that could lead to billions of dollars in damages and alter the ground rules for modern software, according to reports.

It will be the second trial for Oracle's complaint that Google used parts of its Java software without permission. In 2012, a jury found Google infringed Oracle's copyrights, but the judge later ruled the software couldn't be copyrighted. Since then, the case has ping-ponged through appeals courts, including a brief stop at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Each company says it is defending software innovation. Oracle said allowing Google to use Java free would discourage software companies from innovating. Google said requiring it to pay a big fine and licensing fees would discourage programmers from using parts of software to make apps and computer programs talk to one another—as it did with Java—ultimately rendering software less useful.