The jury already delivered its in the copyrights phase of the trial two weeks ago. It found that Google had infringed Oracle's copyright on 37 Java application programming interfaces used in Android, but could not agree unanimously on whether Google's use of those APIs had been covered by fair use.

The jury had been split nine-to-three on that question in Google's favor, one of the jurors told reporters outside the courtroom Wednesday.

Google asked for a mistrial when the partial verdict came in, arguing that the questions of infringement and fair use must be decided by the same jury. Oracle is pushing for a new trial to decide just the fair use question.

Beyond all of that, however, the judge in the case, William Alsup, must decide whether the APIs in Java can be covered by copyright at all under U.S. law. If he decides they cannot, the jury's finding of infringement will be rendered moot and Oracle is likely to appeal Alsup's legal ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

If the judge decides the Java APIs can be covered by copyright, he will then need to decide whether to start a new trial to decide the fair use question. He could also choose to let the appeals court decide on the legal question of whether APIs can be copyrighted and wait for that decision before retrying the issue of fair use.