Tom McThenia Quoted in Article Discussing Google vs. Oracle Lawsuit

GAINESVILLE, FL – March 23, 2020 – Thomas C. McThenia, Jr., Gainesville managing shareholder, was quoted in the Cio Dive article "Google v. Oracle: What the Companies Will Argue Before the Supreme Court." The article discusses the decade-long legal battle between Google and Oracle that questions the role of copyright and fair use in foundation coding language. Google wrote its Android software using Java APIs, and in 2010, Oracle sued Google, arguing copyright laws applied to APIs. In 2018 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit flipped previous trials' rulings in Oracle's favor so Google is leaning on a fair use defense. According to the publication, there are everyday cases for fair use: educational institutions can copy paragraphs of an Earnest Hemingway novel so they can lecture and critique it in a classroom setting. McThenia told Cio Drive, "The statute recognizes that those types of non-commercial educational uses are what fair use is about, but then it's a case by case." Read the full article here.