Google has just lost a major copyright infringement case brought against the search engine firm by tech company Oracle.
Oracle first filed a lawsuit in 2010, claiming that the use of its open-source Java software in the Google-developed Android operating system violated two Oracle-held patents.
A protracted, eight-year long legal battle ensued, with both sides claiming victory at different stages.
But an appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Google did violate existing copyright laws when it used Oracle’s Java API.
The ruling means that Google now stands to pay a huge amount of money in compensation. Analysts put this figure at about $9bn, a sum that will greatly supersede the previous payout of $1.3bn in relation to a copyright infringement case, which was also raised by Oracle in 2010.
The ruling may also have far-reaching implications as to how future software development is done, and how open-source software is utilised by third parties.