Tran Ngoc Thuy By Tran Ngoc Thuy

This is a developing story. We will update this article as the case moves forward.

A closely watched legal fight between Google and the search-data company SerpApi is shaping up as an early test of how far copyright law reaches over access to public web pages. On July 20, 2026, a federal court granted SerpApi’s motion to dismiss key parts of Google’s complaint, handing the smaller company an early win while leaving room for the case to continue. Here is what the dispute is about, what each side argues, and why the outcome matters beyond the two companies involved.

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What the case is about

SerpApi sells programmatic access to search engine results through an API. Developers, researchers, and businesses use it to pull search result data without building and maintaining their own scrapers. Google objects to how that data is collected. In December 2025, Google filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that SerpApi circumvented its anti-scraping protections, a system Google calls SearchGuard, to harvest and resell Google Search results.

Google brought its claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the law more commonly associated with takedown notices, arguing that bypassing SearchGuard amounts to circumventing a technological protection measure.

Google’s argument

In a public statement, Google framed the suit as a last resort against what it called brazen, unlawful scraping. The company said SerpApi uses “shady back doors,” including cloaking and large networks of bots, to bypass industry-standard controls that websites use to manage automated access. Google also argued that SerpApi takes content Google licenses from others, such as images and real-time data, and resells it for a fee, disregarding the rights and directives of the sites and providers involved. Google asked the court to stop SerpApi’s bots.

Lines of code on a screen representing web data access
Photo by Florian Olivo

SerpApi’s response

SerpApi pushed back hard. In a January 2026 response, the company said it accesses only publicly visible search results, the same pages any browser can load, and does not bypass authentication or break encryption. Its central legal point, laid out in its motion to dismiss, is that the DMCA protects copyrighted works, not a website’s ability to control access to public information. Google, SerpApi argued, did not create the search results in question and cannot use copyright to fence off publicly available data.

SerpApi also leaned on precedent, pointing to hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn, a case that warned against information monopolies controlling public data, and argued that a company built on indexing the open web should not be able to stop competitors from accessing public pages. It cast the suit as a threat to AI developers, security researchers, academics, and accessibility tools that all depend on real-time access to public data.

What the court ruled

On July 20, 2026, the court granted SerpApi’s motion to dismiss in part. As Search Engine Land reported, the judge found that Google had not alleged facts showing SearchGuard “was implemented and functioned with the authority of the copyright owner,” a requirement for a DMCA circumvention claim.

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The ruling split along a specific line:

  • Dismissed permanently: DMCA claims tied to search results that contain no copyrighted content.
  • Dismissed with leave to amend: DMCA claims involving copyrighted content, giving Google a short window to revise and refile.
  • Survived: The court rejected SerpApi’s argument that Google lacked standing and accepted that Google had adequately alleged circumvention of SearchGuard, so the case is not over.

In short, SerpApi won an important round, but Google retains a path to continue if it can strengthen the copyright basis of its claims.

Scales of justice representing a court ruling
Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm

Why it matters

The dispute sits at the intersection of copyright law and access to public data, a question with consequences well beyond search. If the DMCA could be used to control access to any publicly visible page, a wide range of services that rely on public web data, from SEO and market-research tools to AI systems and academic research, could face new legal exposure. The court’s skepticism toward stretching the DMCA that far echoes earlier scraping cases, and it will be read closely by anyone whose work depends on collecting public information at scale.

What happens next

With part of its complaint dismissed with leave to amend, Google can try to refile a narrower DMCA claim. The case remains active, and the reasoning in any amended complaint, along with the court’s response to it, will help define how the DMCA applies to web scraping going forward. We will update this article as new filings and rulings arrive.

Sources: Google, SerpApi (statement, motion, ruling), and Search Engine Land.

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About the Author

Tran Ngoc Thuy
Tran Ngoc Thuy

Founder & Manager of AffiliateCMS.com. Learning and sharing insights on #SEO/#GEO, #Affiliate, #AI, #MMO, and #Crypto. Tech enthusiast, tester, and reviewer. Links earn affiliate $.

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