Oracle

The partnership with the implementation partner, Profinch, is expected to provide the required impetus and support for the TISA’s roadmap and strategic endeavors.

Group CEO of TISA, Michael Koisen, stated that “it is crucial to remember that TISA’s vision statement ‘Not for Profit, Not for Charity, But for Service’ remains the cornerstone of its existence. We thrive by serving our members and that is how we have sustained our operations for the last 50 years”.

The row came about because Oracle reneged on a contractual agreement to continue making software that ran on high-end Itanium chips.

The court battle over the contract was settled in 2012 but the damages HPE was due have only now been agreed.

Oracle said it would appeal against the court's decision.

Split business

HP was split into two in 2015 with HPE taking over the running of its servers and services business.

Had the verdict gone the other way, it could have cost Google as much as $9 billion. Oracle will appeal the decision, but if it stands it sets a lofty precedent for fair use.

“The ruling certainly sets a high bar for creativity before deserving protection from fair use,” declares Al Hilwa, program director of software development research for IDC. “In this sense, developers will broadly view this as a relief from the burden of copyrights in crafting or copying APIs to a certain degree.”

Oracle had argued that Google had infringed its copyright and had sought nearly $9bn (£6bn) in damages.

The outcome was eagerly awaited by software developers who feared that a victory for Oracle might encourage more such legal actions.

The company says it will appeal against the decision.

Google uses Java in its Android smartphone operating system which powers about 80% of the world's mobile devices.

The company had argued that extending copyright protection to pieces of code called APIs (application programming interfaces) would threaten innovation.