Google has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a copyright infringement case that some developers think could have a big impact on their ability to innovate in software.
The case was brought by Oracle four years ago and accuses Google of infringing patents and copyrights related to Java in its Android mobile OS.
Google emerged largely victorious from a lower court trial but an appeals court overturned that ruling in May. Google now wants the highest court in the U.S. to hear its case.
Android has become the most widely used mobile operating system, but Oracle says Google copied basic elements of Java to develop the OS. It filed its lawsuit against Google four years ago and was seeking US$1 billion in damages for its copyright claims.