A chemo- and regioselective copper-catalyzed cross-couplingprocedure for amination of 2-bromobenzoic acids is described. The method eliminates the need for acid protectionand produces N-aryl and N-alkyl anthranilic acid derivativesin up to 99% yield. N-(1-Pyrene)anthranilic acid has beenemployed in metal ion-selective fluorosensing. Titrationexperiments showed that this pyrene-derived amino acidforms an equimolar complex with Hg(II) in water resultingin selective fluorescence quenching even in the presence ofother metal ions such as Zn(II) and Cd(II).