The U.S. Supreme Court will attempt to answer a question that has perplexed the technology industry for decades: When is a piece of software patentable?

On Friday, the high court agreed to hear an appeal of a case that has tied lower courts in knots. A May ruling in the case from a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., yielded seven opinions, totaling more than 120 pages, and no clear answer to whether – and when – computer code should get patent protection.

The issue has created a curious split in the technology sector. On one side lie technology giants such as Google Inc., Facebook, and Intuit, which largely believe the Patent & Trademark Office has issued too many software patents in recent years, and would like to see courts apply a more exacting standard when reviewing them.

On the other, lies a collection of big and small technology companies, including International Business Machines, which worry that tighter standards on software patents could hurt innovation.

“This is the biggest patent case we’ve seen in years for the technology sector, and probably the biggest one we’ll see for the next decade,” said Matthew Moore, a patent lawyer at Latham & Watkins LLP in Washington, D.C., who is not involved in the case.