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7. Structure, sequence, and organization of the Java APIs
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In Lotus Development Corp. v. Borland International, Inc., Borland admitted to copying the Lotus command menu hierarchy in its competing spreadsheet program but claimed the hierarchy was not copyrightable because it was a "system, method of operation, process, or procedure foreclosed from protection by 17 U.S.C. § 102(b). (Lotus Development Corp. v. Borland International, Inc., (1995) 49 F.3d 807, 812 [34 U.S.P.Q.2D (BNA) 1014].) In Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc., supra, 872 F.Supp.2d at 976-77, the district court ruled that the Java API structure, sequence, and organization (SSO) is a "system or method of operation" that does not qualify for copyright protection under 17 USCS § 102(b). The appellate court believed the district court erred when it relied on Lotus in making this determination. (Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc., supra, 750 F.3d 1339 at 1364.)
Ninth Circuit case law follows the decision in Johnson Controls, which recognized the copyrightability of a computer program's SSO when it "qualifies as an expression of an idea, rather than the idea itself." (Id. at 1366, citing Johnson Controls, supra, 886 F.2d at 1175-76.) Atari also contradicts the Lotus holding that "expression that is part of a 'method of operation' cannot be copyrighted." (Lotus, supra, 49 F.3d at 818.) Atari found that copyright protects "the expression of [a] process or method"; the Atari holding applies in the Ninth Circuit. (Atari, supra, 975 F.2d at 839.) Finally, the appellate court found that the Lotus decision is in conflict with the Abstraction-Filtration-Comparison test; the test was endorsed by the Ninth Circuit in Altai, supra, 982 F.2d 693 at 706. The Tenth Circuit has also rejected the Lotus "method of operation" analysis and adopted in its place the Second Circuit's abstraction-filtration-comparison test, as explained in Mitel: "[A]lthough an element of a work may be characterized as a method of operation, that element may nevertheless contain expression that is eligible for copyright protection." (Mitel, supra, 124 F.3d at 1372.) 8. Interoperability as it relates to copyrightability |