From srctran@world.std.com  Thu Jul 26 22:46:22 2001
From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 17:46:22 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [Patents] Re:  what rules promote progress?
References: <200107251805.OAA03652@world.std.com>
Message-ID: <200107262146.RAB29781@world.std.com>

Ramon writes:
>... Patents, instead of protecting the innovative Apple against the
>imitator Microsoft, .....

You should do better research.  The legal fight between Apple and Microsoft
was over copyrights to GUIs, not patents.  The Apple case, along with the
Lotus copyright case, pretty much rendered copyright impotent for software
protection.  Had Apple had a patent on their GUI, they would have been
more successful in fighting Microsoft (as was a small company, Stac, which
with its software patent, got over $90,000,000 from Microsoft).

Greg Aharonian


