Eppenauer Talks Java Copyrights with Law360

Shook Seattle Managing Partner Bart Eppenauer discusses the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court decision not to review Google Inc. v. Oracle America Inc. as a part of Law360’s Voices of the Bar panel series.

For the Voice of the Bar panel’s third article, Law360 asked Eppenauer and his fellow panelists about speculation that the decision would stifle innovation and harm interoperability.

In his response, Eppenauer denies that the federal ruling hurts creativity, saying, “It simply lacks all credibility to assert that an industry that contributes several hundred billion USD annually to GDP suffers from a stifling effect to innovation.”

Eppenauer goes on to explain how the Google v. Oracle ruling still protects software developers, saying “Without question, providing copyright protection for SSO of software does not prevent developers from making software interoperable. In cases where substantial non-literal copying is made, fair use can provide a reasonable defense, providing the factors for invoking fair use are met.”