Federal Circuit Finally Gets Something Right About Copyright Law, Affirms SAS v. WPL

Last week, the Federal Circuit finally got something right about copyright law. It affirmed the district court's ruling in SAS v. WPL, holding that a computer program's input formats and output designs aren't protected by copyright. EFF's blog post about the ruling is here.

My Latest EFF Amicus Brief: SAS v. WPL

Today EFF filed the latest amicus brief I helped write, in SAS Institute Inc. v. World Programming Ltd.  The case involves the copyrightability of input formats and output designs of a statistical analysis program.  In other words, things that have no business being anywhere near the subject of copyright protection.

EFF's blog post about the case and our brief is here.

Victory for Fair Use: Supreme Court Rules in Google's Favor in Oracle v. Google

On April 5, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court released its decision in Google v. Oracle. The Court reversed the Federal Circuit and held that Google's use of Java APIs was a fair use.

EFF's blog post about the decision is here.  Other articles about the decision are here, here, here, and here.

This Is Hopefully My Last Amicus Brief In Oracle v. Google

Today EFF filed what is hopefully my last amicus brief in the long running case of Oracle v. Google.  The nearly 10-year old case is now called Google v. Oracle, because of the U.S. Supreme Court's rule that changes the order of the parties when the Court grants a losing defendant's review of a lower court decision.  Here, Google sought review of two terrible decisions by the Federal Circuit about copyrightability and fair use of computer interfaces.

EFF's first brief explains how Congress set up the patent and copyright system to have separate regimes for patentable subject matter vs. copyrightable subject matter.  The brief then explains how the courts can analyze aspects of computer software to determine whether they are copyrightable--in this case, the Java API declarations are not copyrightable.  The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in March 2020, and decide the case by June.

EFF's amicus brief was one of 27 amicus briefs supporting Google.  The Supreme Court briefs in the case can be found on EFF's case page or on the Supreme Court docket.

Yet Another Amicus Brief in Oracle v. Google

Today EFF filed the latest amicus brief on which I worked, in the long running case of Oracle v. Google.  EFF's blog post about the brief is here.

My Latest Amicus Brief For EFF

This week, EFF filed an amicus brief on which I worked, in the long running case of Oracle v. Google.  Some background: In 2014, the Federal Circuit reversed a trial court ruling that the Java APIs used by Google are not copyrightable, and sent the case back for a trial on Google's fair use defense.  In May 2016, a jury found that Google's use of the Java APIs was a fair use.  Oracle again appealed.  In March 2018, a three judge Federal Circuit panel overturned the jury verdict and held that Google's use was not a fair use as a matter of law.  Taken together, the 2014 and 2018 Federal Circuit opinions mean that APIs are both copyrightable and will rarely be available as a fair use.

Google filed a petition for rehearing en banc, to ask all of the active judges of the Federal Circuit to rehear the opinions by the three judge panel.  EFF's amicus brief supports Google's petition.  If the petition is denied, Google will likely ask the Supreme Court to review the case. 

My Latest EFF Amicus Brief: Cisco v. Arista

Over the holidays, EFF filed the latest amicus brief I helped write.  The brief was in the computer software copyright case of Cisco Systems v. Arista Networks.  EFF's blog post about the brief is here.

Update: Jon Band has written this blog post about the amicus briefs supporting Arista.