Court Dismisses Google's Amended Complaint Against SerpApi

On November 9, Chief Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted SerpApi's motion to dismiss Google's amended complaint. It is the second time the court has dismissed Google's claims in this case.

Google sued SerpApi in December 2025 under the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). To bring that claim, Google has to plead facts showing that its anti-bot system, SearchGuard, controls access to copyrighted works, and that the owners of those works authorized Google to use it for that purpose. We moved to dismiss Google’s complaint, and in July the court agreed with us, dismissing Google's original complaint for failing to plead those elements, with leave to amend and correct those deficiencies.

In August, Google filed an amended complaint that pointed to four supposed sources of authority: a licensing agreement with Reddit, agreements with two unnamed licensing partners, and Google's own Privacy Policy. We moved to dismiss a second time, and this week the court again found that the amended complaint did not adequately plead the required elements for any of them. On the four sources, the court held:

• Reddit. The complaint did not allege facts showing that the licensed Reddit content is protected by copyright, nor that it appeared in the search results SerpApi is alleged to have accessed. Further, Google failed to allege any facts showing that Reddit had the right to authorize protections for content owned by Reddit's users.
• The two unnamed agreements. The complaint did not identify the parties, describe the licensed content, or describe the terms in enough detail to show that the agreements authorized measures against automated access.
• Google's Privacy Policy. The court found that the policy itself contains no terms referring to licensed content or to Google's protection of it.
• Other content. For the music lyrics, images, and user-generated content the complaint mentions, Google alleged no facts showing that the copyright owners authorized SearchGuard.

The dismissal is with leave to amend, "but only for the purpose of curing the deficiencies" the court identified. Google has 21 days to file a new complaint. If it does not, the court has said that it will dismiss the case with prejudice. 

Whatever Google chooses to do, we view this as another win for our customers and for everyone who depends on an open internet. If Google does file again, we are ready to continue the defense of our company, our customers, and our principles.

The full order is attached and, as always, we encourage you to read it.