Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!sgi!karsh@trifolium.esd.sgi.com
From: karsh@trifolium.esd.sgi.com (Bruce Karsh)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Patents and Architecture
Message-ID: <63007@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 27 Jun 90 23:29:54 GMT
References: <62864@sgi.sgi.com> <=Y943A7@xds13.ferranti.com> <37297@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: karsh@trifolium.esd.sgi.com
Reply-To: karsh@trifolium.sgi.com (Bruce Karsh)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 40

In article <37297@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> jbuck@galileo.berkeley.edu (Joe Buck) writes:

>They say they went back to Apple and changed the user interface
>dramatically, adding icons, among other things.  They had no reluctance
>to "admit" this because at the time, the notion that user interfaces
>were protected intellectual property did not exist.

Hence, the Apple Lisa.  Then they went back and made it better.  The result
was the Macintosh.

>This perversion was
>invented later, fortunately; otherwise, only one major automaker would
>be allowed to use a foot pedal to control the amount of gasoline fed to
>the car engine, and Bruce Karsh would defend this notion, asking why
>auto manufacturers keep reinventing the same tired old design.

	1) Are you saying that the accelerator pedal is perfect and can not be
	   improved?  If you look at some accelerator pedals, you'll find that
	   they are not all identical.

	2) You are allowed to create any kind of accelerator pedal you want
	   so long as it does not contain any patented invention.  You
	   can usually license the patented technology if you need it
	   badly enough.

	3) The claim that only one major automaker would be allowed to
	   use a foot pedal is completely false.  The foot pedal is now
	   in the public domain.

>There is no question about it: the Mac interface comes from the Lisa;
>the Lisa interface was inspired by the Xerox Star.  It's on the record,
>from the designers' own mouths.

The Lisa was a flop.  Apple has buried the remaining few unsold ones in a
lanfill.  The Macintosh incorportated new UI technology which enabled it
to be successful.  If Apple didn't have intellectual property protection
on the Macintosh, I think they'd probably be out of business today.

			Bruce Karsh
			karsh@sgi.com