Supreme Court asks DOJ to weigh in on Google-Oracle case

The Supreme Court is asking the Trump administration to weigh in on the landmark copyright battle between Google and Oracle.

The court invited the Department of Justice to offer its views on Oracle’s long-running lawsuit claiming that Google’s Android software infringed on its copyright.

Google is seeking to appeal a lower court’s ruling that it had unlawfully used Oracle’s code in its software. Oracle is seeking about $9 billion in damages.

{mosads}Oracle first sued Google in 2010, and the case has been closely watched because of its implications for how copyright protection affects programming language.

“The outcome of this case will have a significant impact on the future of American innovation,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “We are asking the Supreme Court to hold that copyright law supports the kind of interoperability that has been critical to the progress of software development in the United States.”

The Supreme Court will occasionally ask the federal government to weigh in on cases that it is reviewing.

In 2015, the Obama administration’s Justice Department urged the court not to take up an earlier Google appeal in the case. The justices eventually agreed.

Jacqueline Thomsen contributed.