NEW YORK, N.Y. - A U.S. appeals court on Friday reversed the conviction of a Russian-born former Goldman Sachs programmer on charges he stole computer code, in a case that tested the boundaries of what can be considered a crime as companies seek to protect their intellectual property from competitors.

The unusually speedy mandate from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan will result in freedom for Sergey Aleynikov, who was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison. He was convicted in December 2010 of stealing trade secrets and transporting stolen property in interstate and foreign commerce.

Aleynikov's attorney, Kevin Marino, said Aleynikov reacted by saying: "There is justice in the world."

"I could not be happier," Marino said. "It's justice because Sergey Aleynikov did not commit either of the crimes with which he was charged. The government's attempt to stretch this criminal federal statute beyond all recognition resulted in a grave injustice that put Sergey Aleynikov in prison for a year."

In arguments before the 2nd Circuit, Marino called it "ridiculous" that his client was facing eight years in prison because he was found to have information that was not a product that Goldman Sachs sold in interstate and foreign commerce. A prosecutor had asked the court to uphold the conviction, saying protection of trade secrets was the only way companies could retain their technological advantages.

Prosecutors declined to comment Friday.

The trial brought into focus sophisticated computer programs that use mathematical formulas to execute scores of trades in short periods of time after evaluating moment-to-moment developments in the markets.

The government said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. makes millions of dollars a year in profits from high-frequency trading and carries a competitive advantage over rivals because of the speed of its computer programs.

Aleynikov, a naturalized U.S. citizen who emigrated from Russia in 1990, was arrested in July 2009 and accused of taking trade secrets from Goldman Sachs in 2008 to help his new company gain an advantage with high-speed trading. Marino told jurors that his client was merely trying to copy parts of the company's software that were taken from public software codes.

At sentencing, Aleynikov said he very much regretted "the foolish decision to download information before I left Goldman Sachs," though he added that only some of the information he took was proprietary to the company.

He said he "never meant to cause Goldman any harm, and I haven't acted with malice to anyone at the bank."