On September 27, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Rimini Street, Inc. v. Oracle USA, Inc.,[1] in order to resolve a split in the circuits related to prevailing copyright litigant’s awarding of “full costs,” and whether that means only taxable costs under 28 U.S.C. §1920 – court and witness fees, copying costs, expert fees, and docketing fees – and per diem and mileage fees under 28 U.S.C. §1821. There is currently a split in the circuits which necessitated the grant of certiorari by the Supreme Court. The case is between Oracle (already involved in another case against Google pending grant of certiorari dealing with substantive copyright issues in APIs)[2] and Rimini Street, a third-party enterprise software support company. Oracle is the second-largest software company, and develops enterprise, cloud, and database software and systems, and actively licenses its products through its extensive intellectual property portfolio.
The issue in this particular case is whether the Copyright Act’s (17 U.S.C. §101 et seq.) allowance of “full costs” under 17 U.S.C. §505 to a prevailing party is limited to taxable costs, as held by the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Eighth and Eleventh Circuits, or authorized for non-taxable costs, as held by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The briefing schedule is expected to be completed in the fall 2018, with oral arguments in spring 2019, and a decision either summer or fall 2019.
[1] 879 F.3d 948 (9th Cir. 2018), cert. granted, 585 U.S.___ (2018).
[2] See Oracle Am., Inc. v. Google LLC, 886 F.3d 1179 (Fed. Cir. 2018).