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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!hc!beta!unm-la!unmvax!charon!cs2531bn
From: cs2531bn@charon.unm.edu (Lazlo Nibble)
Newsgroups: misc.legal,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.apple,comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Apple challenges MS-Windows, et.al.
Message-ID: <2543@charon.unm.edu>
Date: 22 Mar 88 08:54:05 GMT
Reply-To: cs2531bn@unmc.UUCP (Lazlo Nibble)
Organization: Donutz, Donutz, DONUTZ!
Lines: 17

> I hope the courts throw this **STUPID** case out of the courts, and establish
> the fact that a USER-INTERFACE shouldn't be copyrighted.
>
> rjung@castor.usc.edu

Far too late for that already.  The courts have already decided that the "look
and feel" of a user interface CAN be copyrighted.  Remember the lawsuit that
Broderbund won over one of the Print Shop clones?

I think Apple is on pretty firm ground with this one.  Microsoft implicitly
agreed that Apple had claim to "very-Maclike" interfaces when they licensed
the technology from Apple.  The big question is going to be exactly how
Microsoft violated that licensing agreement, not where Apple derived the design
of the interface from in the first place.  If there was wrongdoing there, it
will be decided elsewhere.

Lazlo Nibble (cs2531bn@charon.unm.edu)