Google asks Supreme Court to overrule disastrous ruling on API copyrights

He's talking about software patents. I wouldn't equate that with API copyright. For many things discovering an algorithm to do something is just that - a process more about 'discovery' than 'invention.' As an obvious example in graphics, think about something like height mapped terrain. Anybody of reasonable cleverness who thinks on the problem of how to represent terrain in a 3D world is going to, at some point, "invent" height mapped terrain. Whole system APIs, by contrast, are more of a creative expression in that there are an infinite number of possible APIs. And for anything not completely trivial, wholesale copying there is only going to happen by overt and intended effort.

I'm not saying that APIs should or should not be protected by IP law -- only that it's a different issue since the odds of unintended replication approach zero very rapidly as the complexity of a system increase. So the question becomes whether intentional, and not strictly necessary, replication should or should not be allowed.

So, like regular patents? What he's saying is that patents should not exist? That doesn't sound good.