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Lawsuits All Around (12/15/98)
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We all know about Imatec's $1.1 billion lawsuit against Apple for allegedly infringing upon Imatec patents in the ColorSync color management technology. Since it was first announced, we've been hard-pressed to name another high-tech suit with such a high price tag-- but that's all just changed. Enter Goldtouch Technologies, Inc., a maker of ergonomic input devices who has just sued Microsoft for $1 billion in damages, alleging "patent infringement, fraud, and theft of trade secrets." Read all about it in PC Week Online.
Goldtouch's suit alleges some pretty nasty behavior on Microsoft's part. According to the suit, Microsoft buddied up to Goldtouch and stated that they were interested in licensing some technology to use in a new Microsoft mouse. A meeting was scheduled between the two companies, at which Microsoft representatives asked "detailed questions" about Goldtouch's ergonomic designs and technologies, which Goldtouch answered with the belief that a licensing deal was imminent. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft told Goldtouch that they were no longer interested-- and a year later, the Microsoft Intellimouse Pro hit the market. According to Goldtouch, Microsoft used the information gathered at the meeting to design its new mouse. It was a slimy move, if it indeed happened that way-- Imatec's suit against Apple doesn't allege nearly the same degree of icky behavior, even though it asks for more money. (Both suits claim full intent to ignore the patents that were supposedly violated, and are asking for treble damages. That's over $6 billion, all told.)
So the billion-dollar-question is this: Is it a good sign or a bad sign that Apple faces lawsuits of similar size and type as ones filed against the monolithic Microsoft? On the one hand, it's a big distraction for Apple during this time of rebuilding, but on the other, does this officially put them back in the big leagues? If it does, it's a heck of a way to get there...
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SceneLink (1219)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 12/15/98 episode: December 15, 1998: The Mac is relatively bullet-proof when it comes to the millennium bug, and Apple is finally getting ready to exploit that fact in a big advertising blitz. Meanwhile, Apple isn't the only high-tech company facing a billion-dollar patent infringement lawsuit, and in "Redmond Justice," Judge Jackson once again gets snippy with Microsoft's lawyers...
Other scenes from that episode: 1218: Maclennium Countdown (12/15/98) We at AtAT have been stating for a long time that Apple should capitalize upon the relative insignificance of the Y2K bug in Macintosh systems by starting a heavy-hitting ad blitz that harps on the subject... 1220: More Monkey Business (12/15/98) Just when "Redmond Justice" seemed to have slipped into a lull, things got hopping again during Microsoft's cross-examination of government witness Edward Felten. If you've been tuning in regularly, you know that Felten is the Princeton University professor of computer science who has testified that Microsoft's integration of the Internet Explorer web browser into the Windows operating system was not done because of any planned design, but rather to force Windows customers to use IE...
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