A federal appeals court on Friday granted Oracle an appeal in its case against Google. Specifically, the court ruled that code within the Java platform is, in fact, entitled to copyright protection.

In a statement on the matter, Oracle General Counsel Dorian Daley said they were extremely pleased that the federal circuit denied Google's attempt to drastically limit copyright protection for computer code. It's a win for Oracle and the entire software industry that relies on copyright protection to fuel innovation and ensure that developers are rewarded for their breakthroughs, she added.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed four years ago by Oracle in which they claim Google's use of Java application programming interfaces (APIs) within the Android mobile operating system constitutes copyright infringement.

In the original trial, the jury concluded that Google did indeed use APIs belonging to Oracle in Android but they were deadlocked on whether it was considered fair use. Such use allows for the copying of material in select circumstances.

The case will now head back to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco where yet another jury will be tasked with deciding if the use of the APIs falls under the fair use category.

Daley said Oracle is confident that the district court will appropriately apply the fair use doctrine. Google had not issued a comment on the ruling at the time of this publication.