Microsoft Backs Oracle's Crusade Against Google Android

Yes, Microsoft is backing Larry Ellison and Oracle in their ongoing crusade to prove that Google infringed on Oracle's copyrights in building the Android mobile operating system.
Image may contain Human and Person
Photo: James Merithew/Wired.com

Yes, Microsoft is backing Larry Ellison and Oracle in their ongoing crusade to prove that Google infringed on Oracle's copyrights in building the Android mobile operating system.

On Tuesday, according to court records, several companies and individuals filed statements in support of an Oracle appeal that seeks to show that Google illegally cloned the Java APIs, or application programming interfaces, software that developers use to build applications in the Java programming language. Microsoft was among them, filing a brief together with data storage giants EMC and NetApp.

Microsoft declined to comment on the case, but the company did send us a copy of the brief, which argues that a federal court erred in deciding that the Java APIs were not subject to copyright. "Under established precedent, sufficiently original software packages like those in the Java platform certainly may be copyrightable, preventing free-riders from replicating their precise structure and suite of features," the brief reads.

It's no surprise that Microsoft would side with Oracle. Microsoft offers a mobile operating system, Windows Phone, that competes with Android, and the software giant is already fighting its own court battles against Google over the OS.

In 2010, Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, the creator of the Java programming language, and just months later, it sued Google, claiming that Android infringed on both copyrights and patents related to Java. With Android, Google created its own Java virtual machine -- the software that runs applications written in the Java programming language -- and in doing so, it cloned the Java APIs. These interfaces are what applications to communicate with the virtual machine.

Last year, a federal judge and jury found almost completely in favor of Google, with Judge William Alsup ruling that APIs are not subject to copyright. But Oracle has appealed this decision, and last week, the company filed a brief arguing that Google's cloning of the Java APIs was akin to someone shamelessly plagiarizing the structure of a Harry Potter novel.

Oracle is trying to show that APIs are akin to a work of art -- and thus subject to copyright. "I think the legal strategy is right, if they want to win the case,” Ed Walsh, an intellectual property attorney with the Boston-based law firm Wolf Greenfield, told Wired. Microsoft is buttressing this stance in arguing against the ruling from Judge Alsup.

"The district court below fundamentally erred in reaching its conclusion that the Java software packages Google admittedly copied are not copyrightable at all," Microsoft's brief reads.

The software trade group BSA, the Picture Archive Council of America, and the Graphic Artists Guild have also filed briefs in support of Oracle, as has former Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy, a witness during last year's trial.

Oracle declined to comment on the new filings.

Update: This story has been updated to include material from Microsoft's brief.