Google approaches US Supreme Court over Oracle copyright fight

Google has asked the US Supreme Court to wade into contentious litigation against Oracle, arguing that the high court must act to protect innovation in high tech.

Google's request, filed on Monday, seeks to overturn an appeals court ruling that found Oracle could copyright parts of the Java programming language, which Google used to design its Android operating system for smartphones.

Representatives for Oracle and Google were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

Google's Android is the world's best-selling smartphone platform. Oracle sued Google in 2010, claiming that Google had improperly incorporated parts of Java into Android. Oracle is seeking roughly $1 billion on its copyright claims.

The case examined whether computer language that connects programs - known as application programming interfaces, or APIs - can be copyrighted. At trial, Oracle said Google's Android trampled on its rights to the structure of 37 Java APIs.

A San Francisco federal judge had decided that Oracle could not claim copyright protection on parts of Java, but earlier this year the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington disagreed.

In its filing this week, Google said the company would never been able to innovate had the Federal Circuit's reasoning been in place when the company was formed.

"Early computer companies could have blocked vast amounts of technological development by claiming 95-year copyright monopolies over the basic building blocks of computer design and programming," Google wrote.

The case in the US Supreme Court is Google Inc vs Oracle America Inc, 14-410.

(Reuters)