After a vicious blog post from Google's chief legal officer David Drummond that accused Microsoft and Apple of conspiring against Android, Microsoft isn't taking the high road but is firing back with tweets and blog posts.

Microsoft's top public relations executive Frank X. Shaw tweeted to refute Drummond's Google blog post

Free advice for David Drummond - next time check with Kent Walker before you blog.

He also attached a screen shot of an email from Google general counsel Kent Walker sent on Oct. 28, 2010 to Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith to decline Microsoft's offer to jointly bid on patents from Novell.

The screen shot reads:

Brad -

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you -- I came down with a 24-hour bug on the way back from San Antonio. After talking with people here, it sounds as though for various reasons a joint bid wouldn't be advisable for us on this one. But I appreciate your flagging it, and we're open to discussing other similar opportunities in the future.

I hope the rest of your travels go well, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

- Kent

The email is supposed to be evidence against Drummond's claims that Apple and Microsoft were engaged in a hostile campaign to strangle Android by buying up patents.

Drummond then updated his original blog post to say that Microsoft's response was another diversionary tactic that failed to address the real issue. He argued that Google would have been at risk if it had been part of the Novell deal. He wrote:

It's not surprising that Microsoft would want to divert attention by pushing a false "gotcha!" while failing to address the substance of the issues we raised. If you think about it, it's obvious why we turned down Microsoft's offer. Microsoft's objective has been to keep from Google and Android device-makers any patents that might be used to defend against their attacks. A joint acquisition of the Novell patents that gave all parties a license would have eliminated any protection these patents could offer to Android against attacks from Microsoft and its bidding partners. Making sure that we would be unable to assert these patents to defend Android -- and having us pay for the privilege -- must have seemed like an ingenious strategy to them. We didn't fall for it.

Shaw responded with a series of tweets that said:

Hello again David Drummond. This is going to take a few tweets, so here we go. Let's look at what Google does not dispute in their reply.

We offered Google the opportunity to bid with us to buy the Nortel patents; they said no.

Why? BECAUSE they wanted to buy something that they could use to assert against someone else.

SO partnering with others & reducing patent liability across industry is not something they wanted to help do

This doesn't seem to be the end of the ongoing battle between the tech companies involved. Apple has yet to chime in but it is already embroiled in its own legal battles with Samsung. The smartphone wars are now getting into high gear.