The country's leading association of intellectual property lawyers, American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), has asked an appeals court to affirm part of a lower court’s ruling in Viacom International Inc.’s $1 billion copyright infringement suit against Google Inc. and YouTube Inc., saying the lower court correctly interpreted a copyright law. In an amicus brief filed Friday, the AIPLA urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to uphold a district court ruling that found Google was entitled to the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and not liable for infringement of Viacom programs on YouTube. Patrick Coyne, a Finnegan partner, co-authored the brief and said concern for the potential effects on the safe harbor provision, as well as the political sensitivity of the matter, inspired AIPLA to submit a brief. “This raises some very interesting, hot-button issues on the scope of the safe harbor exception,” Coyne, a recent chair of AIPLA’s amicus committee, told Law 360 Monday. “We thought Viacom’s position would cut back safe harbor in way we felt was inconsistent with what Congress intended.” The association’s focus, he added, wasn’t the outcome of the case but the language the Second Circuit might use in reaching a decision. AIPLA is represented by Finnegan.