It's strange that there's little of comparison of an API to a standard. (Think like ISO standards) as API is not a program itself, it's a rule-set how two programms can interoperate.

Patenting API's imo is like patenting a rule set for a game (say like football). Imagine someone patenting rules for a football and afterwards it's allowed only to play the game if you are "licensed" by the patent holder.

anyways- the Googles defense team seems bland. Not sure whether they really understand the idea of what API is and what's it's purpose and that API's textual representation is absolutely non-essential.