Auto Care Association Files Amicus Brief for Supreme Court Case on Software Copyright

Bethesda, MD – The Auto Care Association, along with Static Control, filed an amicus brief on Jan. 13 regarding a case currently before the United States Supreme Court that has the potential to severely limit the ability of companies to produce compatible replacement parts for software driven vehicles. 

The case, Google v. Oracle, as decided by a Federal Circuit Court, upheld a charge by Oracle that Google had violated a software copyright when it copied a small part of the application program interfaces (API) code necessary to enable interoperability with programs for Google’s Android platform. If permitted to stand, companies could copyright their APIs such that it would severely hamper companies attempting to ensure compatibility of replacement parts with vehicle software.