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Cupertino Justice? (11/20/98)
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We've said it before, and we'll say it again: high-tech lawsuits make the world go 'round. While Microsoft's own entanglements with the Justice Department and Sun are the courtroom battles currently making all the headlines, let's not forget that Apple has its own share of lawsuits pending. They are, for example, being sued for cancelling Newton. They are also being sued for chucking out the whole "free telephone support forever" SOS-APPL plan. In fact, there are quite a few lawsuits filed against Apple, but none is as large nor as potentially absurd than the suit filed by IMATEC. IMATEC, you may recall, alleges that Apple violates three of their patents in the ColorSync color management technology-- and is suing for $1.1 billion. (With that much green, who needs color management?)
We hadn't heard anything more about this case in many months, leading us to suspect that IMATEC had either given up or been laughed out of the court system; instead, however, the lack of news seems due primarily to the pace at which these lawsuits typically proceed. Suddenly, out of nowhere, IMATEC has issued a press release announcing their witnesses in the case, which apparently will proceed to trial. Previously, everything we'd seen about the lawsuit indicated that the case was groundless, that IMATEC was a scam artist hoping for a quick out-of-court settlement in order to raise some much-needed cash, and that even if they tried to bring the case to court, they'd likely fail to get that far. Whoops! Guess not. And IMATEC's witness list doesn't name the newsstand vendor and the owner of the local nudie bar, either-- there are some real live people on there, and ones that should know what they're talking about. Intellectual property lawyers. Contributing editors to MacWorld. That kind of stuff.
We hope Apple's warming up their legal team. Just imagine if they lose this case and have to pay $1.1 billion to IMATEC. (Actually, AtAT's resident Law Goddess Katie states that since the suit alleges "willfull infringement" by Apple and "full knowledge by them of IMATEC's rights," the payment could actually be double or treble damages. Holy Bonus Multiplier, Batman!) What rotten timing-- Apple just gets back on its feet in time to deal with a billion-dollar lawsuit. But that's the way the game is played. Gentlemen, start your lawyers...
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 11/20/98 episode: November 20, 1998: In today's very special all-legal episode, IMATEC's patent infringement suit against Apple will proceed to trial, and witnesses have been announced. Meanwhile, Microsoft's still dealing with its two-front legal war-- in Washington, an economist charges that Microsoft is a monopoly that can charge what it likes for its products, while back in Redmond, engineers prepare to fix Microsoft products so that their Java complies with Judge Whyte's preliminary injunction...
Other scenes from that episode: 1163: Bleeding Them Dry (11/20/98) "Redmond Justice" has just closed out the fifth week of its new fall season, and much of the high drama seems to have left the show. Early confrontations between Microsoft lawyers and the government's star witnesses-- Netscape's Jim Barksdale, AOL's David Colburn, and even Apple's Avie Tevanian-- were occasionally acidic, often spiteful, and always just plain entertaining... 1164: Re-Java-fying Java (11/20/98) Looks like Java will continue on the Microsoft platform after all. Last week, a judge granted Sun another preliminary injunction in its contract infringement suit against the Redmond Giant; Microsoft has ninety days in which to alter the version of Java that it ships in its products so that it can pass Sun's compatibility tests...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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