Who Sues Who

(With the government busily suing Microsoft and Intel (the latter settled; the former still in progress as of
2/2000), it might be a good time to look back at this article that was published several years ago:)

According to an article distributed by the Associated Press, Apple Computer's long standing lawsuit
against Microsoft Corporation and Hewlett-Packard over the use of "point and click" displays such as
those used on the Macintosh has been dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that most of the screen symbols were covered by a 1985
license Apple granted to Microsoft, were generic ideas that could not be copyrighted, or were derived
from previous displays invented by Xerox Corporation and others.

Observers have long questioned the wisdom of the suit when it was generally acknowledged that the
Xerox Star computer system was the first with the "point and click" display.  Xerox never fully
developed and marketed the system.

Similar displays are used by the Commodore Amiga and by the GEOS operating systems developed
by GeoWorks for Commodore 64 and 128, Apple, and PC.

From "The Interface," newsletter of Fresno Commodore User Group