The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal from Alphabet Inc.'s Google in a multibillion-dollar clash that has divided Silicon Valley, agreeing to decide whether the company improperly used copyrighted programming code owned by Oracle Corp. in the Android operating system.

The justices said they will review a federal appeals court's conclusion that Google violated Oracle's copyrights.

Oracle says it is entitled to at least $8.8 billion in damages.