Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!bbn.com!denbeste
From: denbeste@bbn.com (Steven Den Beste)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Apple vs. HP/Microsoft: Commodore need not fear
Message-ID: <22361@bbn.COM>
Date: 21 Mar 88 15:04:02 GMT
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: denbeste@BBN.COM (Steven Den Beste)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 35

With regards to the Apple vs. HP/Microsoft suit, Commodore need not fear.
Apple won't be coming for Commodore next.

Remember that Apple is a licensee from Xerox, where the entire concept was
developed - they have no legal right to sue anyone who comes up with a
workbench-like user interface, they can only sue when their own products are
closely imitated, which is what they intimate in their suit.

The Amiga interface is substantially different in important ways from the Apple
interface, nor do any of the Commodore-supported application programs imitate
Macintosh programs.

There are really only two features of Workbench which spring to mind as being
potential dangers, and they really aren't because they are *improvements*
rather than *emulations*. Imitation of a copyrighted feature is grounds for
suit, but improvement on a copyrighted feature is emphatically not.

PULLDOWN MENUS: Xerox, Sun and Apollo all use "popup" menus - the menu appears
where-ever the mouse pointer is. The Lisa and Mac use a menu bar and pull-down
menus. Amiga does, too - but whereas the menu bar on the Lisa and Mac are
always present, the menu bar on the Amiga is only there when you push the right
hand mouse button. At other times, that part of the screen is available for
other use. This is arguably an improvement (not for Mycomputerisbetterthanyours
but in front of a judge) and as such is not an infringement.

SCROLL BARS: When a window represents a larger area than can be displayed, both
Amiga and Mac have scroll bars - but where the Mac scroll bar icon is always
the same size, the Amiga scroll bar icon is proportional to the amount of the
whole that you can currently see. Again, arguably (in front of a judge) an
improvement and thus not infringement.

The remainder of the interface is so different that the suit would be thrown
out in pretrial motions.
Steven C. Den Beste,   Bolt Beranek & Newman, Cambridge MA
denbeste@bbn.com(ARPA/CSNET/UUCP)    harvard!bbn.com!denbeste(UUCP)