These companies would not have such large IP legal teams were it not for software patents, nor would they be in the regular habit of taking each other to court with the threat of multi-million dollar damages. As it happens, the copyright protections of an API are the issue in this particular case but this is just one battle in a larger war which is predominantly fought on the patent field. Were it not for software patents it's a fairly sure thing that a case of this sort would never see the light of day.
Lol no. Copyright has always been the basis of protecting software--software patents are a relatively new phenomenon. People were having fights over copyrights to software decades ago.
