APIs weren't copyrightable before Oracle v Google. There was plenty of precedent saying that. For example, before they were called Oracle, they built a clone

APIs weren't copyrightable before Oracle v Google. There was plenty of precedent saying that. For example, before they were called Oracle, they built a clone of IBM SEQUEL. The main concern with Oracle v Google was that the court would ignore or misinterpret the existing precedent. A secondary concern was that a Google employee formerly worked on Java at Sun (and/or Oracle), and copy-pasted some implementation source code from oracle to google's code bases. There was a real possibility the "APIs aren't copyrightable" precedent would stand, but the courts would rule that Google couldn't continue distributing Dalvik.