Google, Inc. v. Oracle America, Inc., United States Supreme Court No. 14-410, Brief of Amici Curiae Intellectual Property Professors in Support of Grant of Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Abstract

Amici Curiae are individuals who teach and write about intellectual property at accredited law schools in the United States. Amici submit this brief to express our views and our concerns. In ruling that the Java APIs at issue in this case are protectable expression as a matter of U.S. copyright law, the Federal Circuit has incorrectly applied binding Ninth Circuit precedents and issued an opinion that splits from rulings by the First, Second, Sixth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. A reversal is warranted because of three foundational errors in the Federal Circuit’s analysis of software copyright law in the Oracle case.