I'm not so sure it is a bad initial result. It looks more neutral to me.
Given the judge's instructions on SSO copyright and APIs and the realities of re-implementing an API, I don't see how a jury could have reasonably concluded there was no potentially infringing copying. If so, the real question in play was the fair use analysis and that's where the jury deadlocked. Not as good as Google would have liked, but not as bad as it could have been, either.
I think you're right. If you assume that APIs are subject to copyright, then seems clear that implementing a new system that copies only the API of another existing system would be a violation of the copyright on the API. But it seems the judge still has to decide whether APIs are in fact copyrightable, and if he decides that they are not, then I suppose this verdict would be irrelevant.
Given the judge's instructions on SSO copyright and APIs and the realities of re-implementing an API, I don't see how a jury could have reasonably concluded there was no potentially infringing copying. If so, the real question in play was the fair use analysis and that's where the jury deadlocked. Not as good as Google would have liked, but not as bad as it could have been, either.