The document discusses the history of intellectual property protections like patents and copyrights. It provides background on the Google vs Oracle case, where Google was sued for copyright infringement for its use of Java APIs in Android. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that APIs could be copyrighted, setting an important precedent. The document argues that APIs are the new software patents, and that open APIs like patents before can breed ecosystem innovation, but more is needed to scale the API economy, with some companies already building tools to help discover and explore APIs.

1. (or the Art of fostering
innovation
while protecting your assets)
@jon_bou

2. A long time ago in a country far,
far away. . . .
@jon_bou

3. Venice, 1450
@jon_bou
First regulated patent system on a large scale,
mostly in the field of glass making

4. @jon_bou
XVth century
Venetian merchants emigrated
and spread the use of patents

5. Why would a
French state
protect the
interests of a
Venetian
merchant?
@jon_bou

6. @jon_bou
Inventor
Exclusive rights
for commercial use
Society
Detailed public disclosure
of the invention

7. @jon_bou
Exclusive right to sell an invention

8. An invention is
patentable if:
@jon_bou
• it’s novel
• it involves an inventive step
• it is industrially applicable

9. @jon_bou
Exclusive right to make copies of
creative works that have been
instantiated in a tangible form

10. @jon_bou
Innovation spread
through the silk road, the spice road, the sea lanes

11. @jon_bou
Truck ideas and Road ideas
“in this world there's two kinds of [ideas], my friend”
Scott Jensen

12. @jon_bou
Truck ideas…

13. @jon_bou
… and road ideas

14. @jon_bou
ROAD IDEA
TRUCK IDEA

15. @jon_bou
ROAD IDEA
TRUCK IDEA

16. @jon_bou
ROAD IDEA
TRUCK IDEA
HTTP

17. @jon_bou
“In The Road Ahead, Bill Gated predicted that
the Information Super Highway would rule the
future. In the first edition, The Information Super
Highway was to be the logical successor to the
Internet, but definitely not using Internet
technology.”
November 1995,
First edition
The Ben Horowitz leaks:

18. @jon_bou
ROAD IDEA
TRUCK IDEA

19. @jon_bou
ROAD IDEA
TRUCK IDEA

20. A little bit of background
1995
@jon_bou
2003
2007
2012
publishes
is born
acquires
sues
2006 licensed under
sues
2010

21. The Google vs Oracle case
COPYRIGHT
@jon_bou
PATENTS DAMAGES

22. The Two Patents
6061520
RE38104
« Method and system for performing
static initialization »
« Method and apparatus for resolving
data references in generated code »
@jon_bou

23. The Copyright infringement
@jon_bou
37 Java packages alleged of infringement:
• rangeCheck function (9 lines)
• several test files
• structure, sequence and
organization of the Java API
• API documentation

24. District
court
April 31, 2012
“Anyone is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out
exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API.
It does not matter that the declaration or method header lines are identical

25. Court of
Appeals
May 9, 2014
“The structure, sequence
and organization of an API
are copyrightable”

26. Did Google infringe the
copyright or was it a fair use?
Back to the
District court
Fair use: doctrine that permits limited use of copy-righted
material without permission from the right holders

27. @jon_bou

28. Well we shouldn’t even care
@jon_bou
It’s not the moral of the story

29. « Data is the oil of the XXIst century » (ew)
@jon_bou
Patents, copyright, sopa/pipa don’t suit data

30. Beautifully designed APIs protect data
@jon_bou

31. Web APIs are the new software patents
@jon_bou
PATENT
Open data, services and
resources to third-parties.
Legal and commercial
protection and monopoly
API
Publications and explanations of
scientific inventions
Counterpart:
Legal and commercial
protection and monopoly
Counterpart:

32. Open APIs, like patents before,
breed ecosystem innovation
@jon_bou
(… but it’s not enough)

33. API exploration and discovery
@jon_bou
(How to scale the API economy ?)

34. Some are already
building the roads
@jon_bou
{API}Search

35. « Where we going, man?
- I don’t know, but we gotta go. »
@jon_bou