A federal judge has dismissed Google’s DMCA charges against SerpApi, stating that barring bots from accessing search results is not, in and of itself, an act of circumventing copyright. It is a notable loss for Google in what was a highly publicized case in the SEO and AI industries.
Chief U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed Google’s claims under Section 1201(a) of the DMCA. The dismissal does not mean the entire case will be dismissed, however; it does mean that the very foundation of Google’s claim was rejected.
How The Case Got Here
In its original lawsuit, Google accused SerpApi of circumventing SearchGuard, Google’s anti-scraping system, in order to obtain and resell Google search results at scale. According to Google, SerpApi’s operation involved hundreds of millions of automated queries per day. The volume, Google alleged, had increased by 25,000% over the last two years alone. Each act of circumvention carries statutory damages of $200 to $2,500 under DMCA Section 1201, which explains the level of interest in the case given the number of queries involved.
SerpApi is a 42-person firm based in Austin, Texas, that provides APIs giving developers, researchers, AI companies, and businesses access to search results. SerpApi challenged Google’s complaint publicly right after it was filed, publishing a detailed response in January 2026 before filing its formal motion in February.
SearchGuard launched in January 2025 after a major investment of time and resources by Google. It works by sending a JavaScript challenge to queries it doesn’t recognize as human, requiring proof that the request came from an actual person.
On February 20, 2026, SerpApi filed the motion to dismiss, a 31-page document where the firm argued that Google did not have legal standing to file the claims, that SearchGuard cannot be considered the type of the copyright access control regulated by DMCA, and that the firm did not commit any circumvention under the definition of the latter provided by DMCA.
The hearing on the motion took place on May 19, 2026, before Judge Gonzalez Rogers. The ruling was rendered immediately after.
What The Court Decided
The core of the matter is the question whether SearchGuard can protect a copyrighted work. The vast majority of the content displayed in the Google search results page is public information, like links, titles, snippets. But the search results can include a Knowledge Panel, that can feature licensed images.
The court decided that in the case of results that did not include copyrighted material, SearchGuard cannot protect it since there is no copyrighted work. All such claims were dismissed without leave to amend, so Google cannot revive them.
The fate of the claims tied to results containing copyrighted images was different, but the outcome still wasn’t favorable for Google. The court found that Google failed to prove it uses SearchGuard with the authorization of the copyright owners. Those claims were also dismissed, but with leave to amend, so Google can revive them if it supplies the missing facts.
The court also addressed SerpApi’s argument that Google lacked standing to sue. The company argued that Google did not have the right to sue because it was not a copyright holder of the copyrighted work in question. The court rejected the argument and ruled that the DMCA’s protections are not limited to copyright holders themselves.
What SerpApi Is Saying
Julien Khaleghy, CEO of SerpApi, called the decision a win for open access to public data. He said SerpApi will continue supporting developers, researchers, AI companies, and businesses that need access to public search information. He emphasized that this case is a part of a broader discussion about the accessibility of the publicly available information.
Why This Matters For SEO And Marketing Tools
This case was closely watched because so much of the SEO industry relies on scraping results pages. Rank trackers, SERP analysis platforms, and competitive research tools all depend on access to search results. Google’s suit raised the possibility that this entire category of tools could be treated as a DMCA violation rather than a simple breach of terms of service.
The dismissed part of the case closes off one of Google’s broadest legal theories. Scraping a results page made up of ordinary links and snippets, without copyrighted content, is not circumvention of a copyright access control under this ruling.
And while the surviving portion of the case, that is tied to the use of Knowledge Panels that contain copyrighted images, shows that Google still has a way, albeit a narrow one, to pursue the suit, it is an important distinction for the tool providers that restrict themselves to ordinary results data.
The case, however, is a part of the wider discussion happening currently regarding the amount of control over automated access to the information that is visible to everyone through the browser. Google built its search business on crawling and indexing other people’s websites, which has made some observers point out the irony of the situation.
Looking Ahead
Given that Google’s image-related claims have been dismissed, the plaintiff will have 21 days following the decision to file an amended complaint should the plaintiff wish to pursue these issues further. However, the ruling makes it clear that such an amended complaint would need to provide additional facts, including facts not supplied during the initial hearing, such as information that proves the authorization by copyright owners to make use of the SearchGuard technology.
As such, the ruling puts an effective halt on all discovery proceedings pending either the filing of the amended complaint or the expiration of 21-day deadline. As a result, the process of this legal matter is effectively put on hold and will remain as such until the plaintiff chooses to make the next move.
At the same time, there is another related matter to consider. SerpApi is also facing a DMCA lawsuit filed by Reddit in October 2025, which named Perplexity AI, Oxylabs, and AWMProxy as co-defendants alongside SerpApi. In this particular case, the legal challenge also revolves around the act of scraping data from publicly accessible pages; however, this time it is Reddit content that Google has indexed which was scraped by the defendants from Google search results instead of Reddit pages. This case is currently separate from that one, but the reasoning behind some of the rulings here might come into play in resolving the Reddit case.
In essence, the current ruling gives rise to hope for SEO tool vendors and marketers who require access to SERP data in their business. Whether this change of the law will hold in the future is yet to be seen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What did the court decide in Google v. SerpApi?
The court dismissed Google’s DMCA anti-circumvention claims against SerpApi, ruling that blocking automated access to search results without copyrighted content isn’t copyright circumvention on its own.
Q2: Why did Google sue SerpApi in the first place?
Google accused SerpApi of bypassing SearchGuard, its anti-scraping system, to collect and resell search results at a scale of hundreds of millions of automated queries a day.
Q3: What is SearchGuard?
SearchGuard is Google’s anti-scraping system, launched in January 2025, which sends JavaScript challenges to search queries from unrecognized sources to confirm the request came from a real user.
Q4: Is this ruling a total win for SerpApi?
Not entirely. The claims tied to search results without copyrighted content were dismissed for good, but the narrower claims tied to licensed Knowledge Panel images were dismissed with permission for Google to amend and try again.
Q5: What does Google need to do to keep its case alive?
Google has 21 days to file an amended complaint showing it has authorization from copyright owners to use SearchGuard to protect their Knowledge Panel images specifically.
Q6: Did the court agree with SerpApi that Google couldn’t sue at all?
No. SerpApi argued Google lacked standing to sue under the DMCA since it isn’t the copyright owner of the search results, but the judge rejected that argument.
Q7: What did SerpApi’s CEO say about the ruling?
Julien Khaleghy called it a win for open access to public data and said SerpApi will keep supporting developers, researchers, and businesses that rely on public search information.
Q8: How does this affect other SEO tools that scrape search results?
The ruling suggests that scraping plain search results without copyrighted content isn’t a DMCA violation under this reasoning, which is relevant for rank trackers and other SERP-based tools that don’t pull licensed images.
Q9: Is there a related case involving SerpApi?
Yes. SerpApi is also facing a separate DMCA lawsuit from Reddit involving similar questions about scraping publicly viewable content, and this ruling could influence how that case unfolds.
Q10: Has Google responded to the ruling?
As of publication, Google has not issued a public comment on the court’s decision.
