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From: rwhite@nusdhub.UUCP (Robert C. White Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Apple Lawsuit (was BOYCOTT APPLE, etc.)
Message-ID: <1038@nusdhub.UUCP>
Date: 28 Apr 88 02:30:36 GMT
References: <10595@sunybcs.UUCP>
Organization: National University, San Diego
Lines: 27

in article <10595@sunybcs.UUCP>, ugfailau@sunybcs.UUCP (Fai Lau) says:
> 
> (note that Ford
> himself did not invent most of the tachnologies that were required for his
> design to work, he simply arranged what was available to create a new
> machine.)

At risk of injecting a little accuracy into this otherwise amusing
thread, Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry by
"inventing" a) any true "automobile technology" b) methods of
"look and feel".  What Henry Ford did was adapt the automobile
that existed at his time [and had been for quite some time before him]
into a series of assembly steps and procedures, by virtue of which
his atobmobile was very box shaped and could be produced in mass
quantity.  If that had been patentable then there would be no
other car companies, now would there?

Henry Ford *invented* the "assembly line" and the design constraints
with which one can further design the product to be assembeled.

	c.f. "You can get it in any color you want...
		as long as it's black"  H. Ford.


If you look into legal history you will discover that Ford Motor
Corp _NEVER_ sued anybody else who used the assembly line concept;
and we know how many companies use that don't we.