Google wins six-year legal battle with Oracle over Android code copyright

Developers expected to welcome ruling that finds Google's employment of Java code in its Android operating system was fair use

Google has won a six-year court case brought by software firm Oracle, which claimed Google had infringed its copyright by using 11,500 lines of Java code in its Android operating system.

The jury ruled that Google's use of 37 Java APIs (application programming interfaces) was fair use. The news will be welcomed by developers, who typically rely on free access to APIs to develop third-party services.