IPPro The Internet Issue 140

News Round-Up
This latest ruling by the Federal Circuit will see
the case return to the district court for a trial
deciding how much Google should have to
pay in damages.
The court found that “the parties stipulated
that only 170 lines of code were necessary
to write in the Java language. It is undisputed,
however, that Google copied 11,500 lines of
code—11,330 more lines than necessary to
write in Java. That Google copied more than
necessary weighs against fair use.”
“Even assuming the jury accepted Google’s
argument that it copied only a small portion
of Java, no reasonable jury could conclude
that what was copied was qualitatively
insignificant, particularly when the material
copied was important to the creation of the
Android platform.”
The court noted: “If we ignore the record
evidence, and assume that Oracle was not
already licensing Java SE in the smartphone
context, smartphones were undoubtedly a
potential market. Android’s release effectively
replaced Java SE as the supplier of Oracle’s
copyrighted works and prevented Oracle
from participating in developing markets. This
superseding use is inherently unfair.”
PUBG seeks win in copyright lawsuit
PUBG Corporation has filed a copyright
infringement lawsuit against a mobile phone
game developer over its PlayerUnknown’s
Battlegrounds video game.
According to the complaint, filed at the US
District Court for the Northern District of
California, NetEase allegedly violated PUBG’s
copyright by creating a mobile version of its
Battlegrounds video game that looks and
feels closely similar. NetEase’s game, Rules
of Survival: Knives Out, features nearly
identical in-game items, including supply
boxes, health-restoring energy drinks and a
“substantially similar” island map, according to
PUBG. PUBG has also accused NetEase of
using similar features like the ‘Circle of Death’,
character customisation, as well as the idea
of dropping from a cargo plane to start the
game and a pre-game loading lobby, that are
nearly identical to PUBG. PUBG requested
the court to order a removal of the game from
app stores, as well as seeking damages.
Counterfeit CD seller sentenced to
16 months
A man has been sentenced to 16 months in
prison for selling counterfeit CDs, which made
profits of over £4 million. An investigation
by the City of London Police’s Intellectual
Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) led to the arrest
of Michael Hargreaves of Lancashire, who had
imported, distributed and sold high-quality
counterfeit music CDs from artists such as
Adele, the Foo Fighters and The Beatles.
7 IPPro The Internet