The courtroom battle that will determine the fate of Android began Monday, and while nothing shocking has been revealed, the first big blow has been thrown. According to Google, Sun Microsystem supported Google and its Android efforts when it learnt that Java will be a part of the Android software stack.

Back in 2007, when Android was gearing up to conquer the smartphone space, the then Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz congratulated Google and went as far as to welcome Android into the Java community. Whether this is enough for Google to escape the wrath of Oracle is left to be seen, but nonetheless, this could be the most powerful point in the Google vs Oracle argument.

According to Google's lead lawyer, Robert Van Nest:

"The Java language is free and open; it's been in the public domain for years, and those APIs you heard about, they are necessary just to use the language. Without the APIs, the language is basically useless."

Van Nest also plans to prove 4 points to the jury that he hopes would sway the tide in Google's favor. His aim is to prove that Sun gave Java to the public before it was acquired by Oracle in 2010, that Sun approved of Android's use of Java, Google built Android using free and open technologies, and finally that Google made fair use of the Java language in Android.

But Oracle has a fighting chance in all of this. In a 2006 email, a Google engineer mentioned that the company was in talks with Sun to license Java, but all talks fell through after Google disagreed with the terms where it would be allowed to use Java code, but if it writes new code, it would have to be given back to the community. So much for Google being a supporter of open source.

Despite having then Sun CEO applauding Android and welcoming the newcomer into the Java community family, we are not sure if the blessing of a CEO is all it takes for a company to whatever it wants with intellectual property; then again, this decision will be left to the jury to decide. Google cannot afford to lose this case; losing would lead to the company paying off years of non-paid royalties to Oracle along with being forced to agree with a Java API license, which from what we understand is the only part of Java that requires a license.

If all goes to the gutter, we think it wouldn't take long before Google gets its own programming language into the game to replace Java. Ever heard of Google Go? It is an open source programming environment that makes it easy to build simple, reliable, and efficient software.

(reported by Vamien McKalin, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)