Supreme Court of the United States / October Term 2020

Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.

Decided April 5, 2021. Stephen Gerald Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 18-956 · 593 U.S. 1 · Cited 7 times

Holding

Google’s limited copying of the Java SE Application Programming Interface allowed programmers to put their accrued talents to work in a transformative program and constituted a fair use of that material under copyright law.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

Official text

Read the official opinion (PDF, supremecourt.gov) (opens primary source in a new tab)

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Stephen Gerald Breyer’s profile · All opinions since October Term 2017 · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2021). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-02. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).