I realize the Court will rule anytime now, and that I may be gilding the proverbial lily here; but I drafted this post in early January, and then the world got a little crazy and distracting. Anyway, FWIW, below is my last observation about Google v. Oracle. At least until after the decision. 🙂 In Google v. Oracle, the Supreme ...

Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a fair use decision in Dr. Seuss Enterprises (DSE) v. ComicMix. After oral arguments were presented in April, I wrote about this case as an example from which creators could learn what not to do when they propose to make substantial use of protected works—especially very famous works. The lawsuit involves ...

As mentioned in my last Google v. Oracle post, the Supreme Court devoted considerable attention during oral argument to addressing the standard applied by the Federal Circuit when it determined as a matter of law that Google’s copying of Oracle’s code was not fair use. Google maintains that the Federal Circuit failed to show proper deference to a jury decision, ...

Welcome to Professor Lemley’s Home for Wayward Works. Formerly known as the Asylum for Orphan Works, but we really prefer not to use the O-word as this connotes a state of abandonment and a feeling of being unwanted. Although we are certainly happy that the term Bastard Works was retired after 1912. At PLHWW, we believe that every work deserves ...

While reading a few other articles about this case, articles written by actual legal experts, I was reminded that Google v. Oracle, despite its epic scale and likely significance as a precedential ruling, is, in fact, not terribly complicated. At least it shouldn’t be. What has made the case complicated of course is Google’s obfuscation in an attempt to win. ...

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