How Jobs Threatened Sun's CEO: I'll Just Sue You
I am rubber, you are glue.
Apple is currently in the middle of a legal battle with HTC regarding patent infringements relating to the user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware of the iPhone. This week former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz shared his own experiences of Apple litigation and although his did not end in a lengthy legal battle, it certainly provides insight as to what it's like to be on the receiving end of a business call from Steve Jobs.
In a posting on his personal blog, Mr. Schwartz recounts a run in he had with Steve Jobs several years ago. The exchange was in regard to a Linux desktop calling Project Looking Glass.
In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass*, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” (IP = Intellectual Property = patents, trademarks and copyrights.) If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.”
However, Johnson was quick to respond with his own questions about intellectual property.
My response was simple. “Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurrence – do you own that IP?” Concurrence was a presentation product built by Lighthouse Design, a company I’d help to found and which Sun acquired in 1996. Lighthouse built applications for NeXTSTEP, the Unix based operating system whose core would become the foundation for all Mac products after Apple acquired NeXT in 1996. Steve had used Concurrence for years, and as Apple built their own presentation tool, it was obvious where they’d found inspiration. “And last I checked, MacOS is now built on Unix. I think Sun has a few OS patents, too.” Steve was silent.
Project Looking Glass was soon abandoned, though Jonathan says it had nothing to do with Steve Jobs or Apple. He goes on to relay a similar story concerning Open Office, which resulted in a very short meeting with Bill Gates and the crew at Microsoft.
Aside from coming at a time when Apple is suing HTC (many speculate the company is just trying to get at Google in the long run), the entire post raises interesting questions about patents and trademarks. The patent system is one a lot of people believe to be very flawed, and with the news that someone is actually trying to patent the act of patent trolling, who can really blame them?
- MSI Ships 2 AMD Netbooks With Radeon HD3200
- LEAK: Dell's Mini 5 MID Specs Confirmed
- Report: Windows 7 SP1 Release Pushed to Q4'10
- Nvidia is Looking Forward to Fight Intel in Court
- Ubisoft Revive DRM Servers After DDoS Attack
- Samsung Shows How Super AMOLED is Better
- Blizzard: World of Warcraft Not for Consoles
- Unannounced Dell All-in-One Shows Up at Walmart
- TEARDOWN: Alienware's M11x Gaming Netbook
- Microsoft Talks XNA Games for Windows Phone 7
- How to Use Our Comments, and Not Get Banned
- OCZ Onyx SSDs Start Under $100
- Battlestar Galactica MMO Game in Development
- Return of a Classic: Jagged Alliance 3 Announced
- GeForce 196.78 Beta Driver Runs GTX 470
- MIT Develops a Cooling Technology of the Future
- Prison Break Game to Launch March 30
- Razer Pledges Support to Mac Gamers
Use the Schwartz?
Sing along with me...
I am rubber you are glue. I will sue sue sue sue you!
Jobs = greedy hypocrit who thinks he's a God
Totally rockin' the comb-over/ponytail combo.
I love how the Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz made Jobs stick is tongue up his a$$ with his own comeback....Awesome!!!
Maybe cancer will hwlp Jobs realize he aint God.
They should divert 10% of their profits to buy as many lawyers as possible.
Then throw them by the dozen at apple.
Seriously, I have been a Mac user for almost 15 years and I am seeing what Apple is doing now as stupid, I mean sure, they are using lots of BSD code in OSX and in the iPhone OS, they sell products that are free and just add fat around so you have the impression they give you more, did they get sued for that? Not really because the BSD license is allowing it. And the same apply to the GPL license. Apple always keep on the line of legal but sues up as soon as they get a chance.
LOL, I had a lot of fun reading the first line.
Reminds me of my favorite Monkey Island insult/comeback:
Your the ugliest monster ever created/Not if you count the ones you've dated!
Litigation "for the rest of us."
I wonder why Xerox never sued Apple for stealing the origins of their whole concept.
I remember reading a story about Jobs sitting next to someone from AMI, might have been Sarma or Shankar, at a convention (AMI being one of the key factors behind the clone PC industry). Sarma/Shankar asked Jobs how he would like to have Apple clones around, Jobs asked S/S how he would like a big lawsuit.
Apple has to protect what little they have or they would dry up and blow away. They have software that has a market but they can't live by selling software only. They make good hardware but they have generated a market where they can sell their hardware at higher than industry standard profit margins. If clones came on the market then the source of most of Apple's profits would go away.
I wonder why Xerox never sued Apple for stealing the origins of their whole concept.
I wonder why Apple never sued Microsoft for stilling their whole concept for desktop OS interface....
I wonder why Apple never sued Microsoft for stilling their whole concept for desktop OS interface....
Because they did not created the concept of the Desktop OS interface?
Xerox did through its division called PARC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_PARC
An understatement for sure.
Mr. Schwartz has got one wicked tongue. Bravo!
Because they did not created the concept of the Desktop OS interface?Xerox did through its division called PARC Source
First version of windows went out four years after MacOS. You do the math.
Originally Gates wanted to License MacOS, but Jobs did not agree.
Go and rent "The Pirates of Silicon Valley" you can see the short story of what happened....
smeker, the fact that Microsoft copied apple is moot. Fact is, since Apple didn't create the desktop environment, they had no, and still have no legal footing to sue Microsoft. The only company that could have was Xerox, and the statute of limitations for them to do that is well past.
Get off your high horse, apple isn't an innovator, they steal ideas from all over the place, just like everybody else in the tech world.
Hmm I wonder if pooing has been patented, if not I am going to patent it so I can receive royalties every time someone goes for a s**t
Stupid patent system!!!
smeker, the fact that Microsoft copied apple is moot. Fact is, since Apple didn't create the desktop environment, they had no, and still have no legal footing to sue Microsoft. The only company that could have was Xerox, and the statute of limitations for them to do that is well past.Get off your high horse, apple isn't an innovator, they steal ideas from all over the place, just like everybody else in the tech world.
You are sure that movies are reporting the facts?
In fact Xerox tried to sue apple after Apple sued Microsoft.
The first successful commercial GUI product was the Apple Macintosh, which was heavily inspired by PARC's work; Xerox was allowed to buy pre-IPO stock from Apple in exchange for engineer visits and an understanding that Apple would create a GUI product. Much later, in the midst of the Apple v. Microsoft lawsuit in which Apple accused Microsoft of violating its copyright by appropriating the use of the "look and feel" of the Macintosh GUI, Xerox also sued Apple on the same grounds. The lawsuit was dismissed because Xerox had waited too long to file suit, and the statute of limitations had expired.[3]
and the source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_ [...] n_by_Apple
moricon -- I don't think you could patent pooing. There's prior fart. . .
intellectual property is not an easy thing to prove, where patents are much more set in stone. If it wasn't for this theft of IP, Jobs as well as Gates would still be working out of their garages hacking little devices (ok, well, Bill would be working on DOS 20).
It is why I hate jobs and his empire, he is the first one to take others ideas or trademarks but gets all in a hissy fit if an idea may be borrowed from his company.
Anyhow, you can trademark a name, patent a design, but its hard to protect an idea.
Sun's CEO just shut Steve up. I hope people will do that to him a few time to bring his ego down a few notch.
wow, I just saw a posting which spoke negatively of the author and was imediately removed when I refreshed my screen. I didn't agree with the posting necessarily but I was hoping this was an open forum.
And that's why open-source will be the future of computing.
wow, I just saw a posting which spoke negatively of the author and was imediately removed when I refreshed my screen. I didn't agree with the posting necessarily but I was hoping this was an open forum.
The Rules of Conduct clearly state that personal attacks are not permitted. While we do highly value free speech and an open forum of discourse at Tom's Hardware, the comment in question very directly targeted the author, rather than the contents of the article. Personal attacks, however couched in valid opinion, are not welcome. Thanks for understanding, and let's keep things in perspective.
Your Humble Servant,
Joe Pishgar
Community Manager
This thread has been brought under moderation.
Please do not diverge from the original topic.
Your Humble Servant,
Joe Pishgar
Community Manager
@rubix_1011:
It's not a comb-over; he simply parted his hair on the left instead of parting it in the middle or combing it back. A comb-over involves taking hair from the side of your head and combing it over the top of your head to cover baldness. There's no way you'd get that kind of coverage with a real comb-over, and the part would have to be further to the side.
THATS THE WAY TO FIGHT LIKE A MAN! we should all take notice of jobs' bravery.
wow, I just saw a posting which spoke negatively of the author and was imediately removed when I refreshed my screen. I didn't agree with the posting necessarily but I was hoping this was an open forum.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/t [...] ,9855.html