Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc.
Filing
1057
REQUEST FOR FURTHER PHASE ONE BRIEFING RE COPYRIGHTABILITY OF SSO (briefing due noon 5/10/2012; replies due noon 5/14/2012). Signed by Judge William Alsup on 5/3/2012. (whasec, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 5/3/2012)
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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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ORACLE AMERICA, INC.,
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For the Northern District of California
United States District Court
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Plaintiff,
No. C 10-03561 WHA
v.
GOOGLE INC.,
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REQUEST FOR FURTHER
PHASE ONE BRIEFING RE
COPYRIGHTABILITY OF SSO
Defendant.
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On MAY 10, 2012, AT NOON, both sides may file memoranda to add any legal argument
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they wish on the issue of SSO copyrightability beyond what they have said in their voluminous
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proposed findings and conclusions of law, each limited to twenty pages. Replies limited to ten
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pages may be filed by NOON ON MAY 14. All evidence relied on must be in the trial record and
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received in evidence.
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In those briefs, please address the following:
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1.
If the Copyright Act is meant to protect expression but not
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vocabulary, should the vocabulary and grammar of a computer language be
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copyrightable, as distinct from programs written in the language? In this regard,
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please comment on the May 2, 2012, decision of the High Court of the European
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Union.
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2.
If each API method is a program — pre-packaged but nonetheless
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a program — did Google copy anything more than the name and the declaration
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(substituting its own implementation)?
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3.
If the format of the name is dictated by the Java programming
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rules, then is the form of “java.package.class.method” required by the syntax of
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the language itself?
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4.
Could Google have come up with different names and SSO yet still
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have provided the same functionality as in Android? Android users would have
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had to learn a new vocabulary and a new outline but the methods would all still
have been resident in such a modified Android. True? Is this what the UK
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For the Northern District of California
United States District Court
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company Spring did?
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5.
Is the input-output (i.e., argument and return) scheme of a method
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copyrightable? For example, can someone copyright the function of inputting
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an angle and outputting the cosine of that angle? If someone has a copyright
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on a particular program to find cosines, does that copyright cover all other
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implementations that perform the identical function (input = angle,
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output = cosine)?
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6.
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The following were the core Java Application
Programming Interface: java.lang, java.util and
java.io.
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Is it agreed that the following is true, at least as of 1996?
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Does the Java programming language refer to or require any
method, class or package outside the above three?
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To what extent do subparts of the above three Java packages refer
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to any other Java packages or subpart of other packages (meaning outside the
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three)? To the extent this occurs, should those outside subparts be deemed to be
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“core” to the programming language?
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9.
What cross-method, cross-class interdependencies exist at the
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implementation level in Java? Were any of these duplicated in the Android
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implementations? (The judge remembers no evidence on this point.)
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10.
In Java, what interdependencies exist at the name/declaration level
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other than the inherited characteristics from the super class, interfaces, same class,
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etc.? Please explain.
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Association:
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(A)
To what extent has it been adopted in the
Ninth Circuit?
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For the Northern District of California
United States District Court
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With respect to the Seventh Circuit decision in American Dental
(B)
If the taxonomy in that decision was protectable,
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why shouldn’t Sun’s hierarchical outline of packages, classes,
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methods for the 37 API packages be protectable (other than
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perhaps the three core packages?
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(C)
Did ADA hold that the numbering system alone
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(apart from the description) was copyrightable?
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12.
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With respect to the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Kapes:
(A)
Kapes stated “Whether CDN’s selection and
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arrangement of the price lists is sufficiently original to merit
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protection is not at issue.” 197 F.3d at 1256. If that was not issue,
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what, if anything, did Kapes expressly say about SSO?
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(B)
In what sense were the “prices CDN creates” in
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Kapes a “compilation” within the meaning of the Copyright Act
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(see 197 F.3d at 1260, second col.).
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(C)
Didn’t Kapes treat the coin prices as
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“compilations”? Please explain how this was done. Has Oracle
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abandoned the compilation argument herein?
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(D)
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Was originality the only issue decided in Kapes?
When discussing use of the SSO in the 37 API packages in
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Android to achieve “compatibility,” what exactly are the parties referring to? Is it
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“compatibility” with programmers who write in the Java programming language?
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Or compatibility with pre-existing programs? If so, approximately what percent
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of pre-existing programs written for the Java platform are compatible with
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Android? Is it compatibility with the TCK? Or Java virtual machine? Or java
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compiler?
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
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For the Northern District of California
United States District Court
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Dated: May 3, 2012.
WILLIAM ALSUP
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
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