Oracle CEO Safra Catz: “We did not buy Sun to file this lawsuit”

Oracle, which acquired Java when it purchased Sun Microsystems, sued Google over the APIs in 2010. In 2012, a judge ruled that APIs can't be copyrighted at all, but an appeals court disagreed. Now Oracle may seek up to $9 billion in damages, while Google is arguing that its use of the 37 APIs constitutes "fair use."

In the company's view, "Java was the single most important asset Oracle ever acquired," Catz said. "We intended to invest in it and bring the Java community together and come out with new versions of Java."