Oracle asks US Supreme Court to ignore Google appeal in Java APIs case

Oracle claims that Google's review plea contains nothing new - and should be rejected

Oracle has submitted a request to the US Supreme Court asking it to ignore Google's last-throw-of-the-dice plea to review the long-running legal battle between the two companies.

Google filed its request with the Supreme Court in January, to review the appeal court's judgement that Google infringed Oracle's copyrights over the way it implemented Java APIs in the Android operating system, enabling standardised apps to be run on the platform.

However, Oracle has slammed the plea in a 46-page filing that tears down Google's assertion that the decision made by the lower court could have a harmful impact on software developers.

"Half of Google's petition has already been rejected, and the other half does not even purport to present a circuit conflict," wrote Oracle in a petition to the Supreme Court this week.

"The United States explained that Oracle's code is copyrightable and that Google's claim of a circuit conflict was meritless. Google now seeks review of that same question with the same arguments.

Half of Google's petition has already been rejected, and the other half does not even purport to present a circuit conflict

"But Google identifies nothing that has changed. The question has not recurred. Nor has software development suffered the devastating impact Google predicted; the industry is doing better than ever."

The company goes on to claim that it "spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars writing a blockbuster work", that "Google then refused Oracle's offer of a licence", and that it "copied most recognizable portions of that work into a competing platform for the express purpose of capturing Oracle's fan base".

According to Oracle, the alleged actions taken by Google have "inflicted incalculable market harm" and are "the epitome of copyright infringement".

However, a spokesperson for Google told The Register: "Overturning long-accepted software practices will hurt innovation across the computer industry and lock in incumbents' advantages.

"We believe that the Supreme Court will find that copyright law supports the kind of interoperability that has been critical to the astonishing progress of software development in the United States."

The case dates back to August 2010 and follows on from Oracle's $5.6 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, which devised Java in the 1990s and owned the intellectual property.

Oracle has long maintained that Google has unfairly copied portions of Java for use in Android.

Last year, an appeal court judge sided with Oracle over its copyright claim, putting Google on the hook for damages of up to $8.8 billion.

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