diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/protobuf/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/protobuf/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..05dabd23773f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/protobuf/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+{ fetchurl, stdenv, zlib }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "protobuf-2.3.0";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "http://protobuf.googlecode.com/files/${name}.tar.bz2";
+    sha256 = "1b40cb7ij4bnw78k46y0a2jkm8qisxkk1gbbj40yi77yqc3pf33n";
+  };
+
+  buildInputs = [ zlib ];
+
+  doCheck = true;
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "Protocol Buffers - Google's data interchange format";
+
+    longDescription =
+      '' Protocol Buffers are a way of encoding structured data in an
+         efficient yet extensible format.  Google uses Protocol Buffers for
+         almost all of its internal RPC protocols and file formats.
+      '';
+
+    license = "mBSD";
+
+    homepage = http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/;
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 6e2cbbab28ff..5fd9b60d5abc 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -3707,6 +3707,8 @@ let
 
   postgis = callPackage ../development/libraries/postgis { };
 
+  protobuf = callPackage ../development/libraries/protobuf { };
+
   pth = callPackage ../development/libraries/pth { };
 
   ptlib = callPackage ../development/libraries/ptlib {};