Oracle claims Android has generated $42 billion in revenues for Google

Google has made a $42 billion in revenues from its Android mobile operating system, Oracle asserted Tuesday.

The claim, made in the opening statement of Oracle's copyright infringement case against Google, explains in part why Oracle is seeking $9.3 billion in damages from Google for its use of 37 Java API packages in the development of Android. A federal appeals court has already ruled that the APIs were, in fact, protected under copyright, but Google is now arguing that its use of the code amounted to "fair use."

Oracle's attorney Peter Bicks told the 10-person jury in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco that Google is relying on the "fair use excuse."

"Google made a deliberate business decision not to take a license and to copy and use Oracle's valuable software illegally," Bicks said. "Why? Huge profits."

Google, for its part, is arguing that the the APIs represented just a fraction of the code used to build the OS. The company is also arguing that it used the APIs in a "transformative" way. Additionally, it says Sun Microsystems, which developed Java before Oracle acquired Sun, didn't object to Google's use of it.

Alphabet Chairman and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was the first witness called in the case. He stressed that Google built Android on its own and considered the Java language and its APIs freely available, ArsTechnica reports.

"We believed it was possible to implement the language, without a license from Sun," Schmidt said. Pressed on whether that included the use of the APIs, he answered, "Yes, we believed it was permissible to do so."

Schmidt will take the stand again on Wednesday to face continued cross-examination from Bicks, Oracle's attorney.