Firstly, an API is the short form for Application Program Interface which is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API specifies how software components should interact and APIs are used when programming graphical user interface.
Google has finally won six-year long $9-billion legal battle with Oracle over the use of Java APIs in Android.
Oracle filed its lawsuit against Google in 2010, claiming that the company illegally used 11,500 lines of Java code in its Android operating system, violating copyrights owned by Oracle.
However, a federal jury of ten people concluded Thursday that Google's use of Java constituted
"Fair Use" under US copyright law and delivered a verdict in favor of Google.
The case was a big deal as the court decision could have the potential to change the way future apps are written for Android operating system that is being used by almost 80% of the world's mobile devices.
Oracle, who owns Java, had been seeking $9 Billion in damages for use of application programming interfaces (APIs), which governs how code communicates with other bits of code.
However, Google argued that the Java APIs in question were necessary for software innovation, allowing different apps to talk to each other, and , therefore, couldn't be copyrighted.
Google almost won the initial lawsuit in 2012, but a federal court reversed the decision in 2014 in Oracle's favor. Google reached out to the US Supreme Court to take the case, but Supreme Court declined to hear Google's appeal.
Now, the verdict that was reached after three days of deliberations marked a victory for Google after the jury found that the company's use of the code and its structure, sequence, and organization of the Java APIs in the Android was a fair use.
