No, there are no Ninth Circuit precedents saying APIs are protectible by copyright. I am referring to the Johnson Controls line of cases that specify that software is to be analyzed piece-by-piece (including its "structure, sequence, and organization" - a judge-invented doctrine) in determining which pieces are expressive and which are functional. This line of cases makes it virtually impossible for a trial judge in this circuit to conclude as a matter of law that any specific element (such as the menu structure in Lotus v. Borland) is categorically excluded from copyright protection as falling within 17 U.S.C. sec. 102(b) (which excludes ideas, systems and methods of operation, etc. from copyright protection). Since SSO obviously has expressive elements to it, it also virtually forced the judge to instruct the jury that the SSO for the APIs could be infringed if they found that such expressive elements existed (a point which Oracle argued vigorously, e.g., by emphasizing all the creative choices an API developer makes in designing the API structure).