OREANDA-NEWS. May 27, 2016. Software can continue talking to software the way it always has.

That's because a jury found Thursday that Google's Android mobile operating system doesn't violate copyrights owned by Oracle. Rather, it's covered by fair use.

The case, brought by Oracle, involved application programming interfaces, which govern how code communicates with other bits of code. The APIs were part of Java, which Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems.

The case was widely watched because of its potential to change the way apps are written for the Android OS going forward. That's a big deal because almost two thirds of the world's mobile phones run on the software.

Google, unsurprisingly, called the verdict "a win for the Android ecosystem" and "software developers who rely on open and free programming languages to build innovative consumer products."

Of course, it doesn't take an, umm, oracle to figure out what Oracle is going to do.

"We strongly believe that Google developed Android by illegally copying core Java technology to rush into the mobile-device market," Oracle General Counsel Dorian Daley said in a statement. "We plan to bring this case back to the Federal Circuit on appeal."