Sun's Jonathan Schwartz on Apple v. HTC

[unixronin]

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.”

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.

Former Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz blogged yesterday about some of the intellectual-property wars Sun has been involved in, including threats by both Apple and Microsoft — well, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in person, actually — to sue Sun over alleged IP violations, threats which Schwartz defused on the spot by pointing out how many Sun patents Apple and Microsoft were violating.  C|Net discusses the post and its implications for the Apple - HTC lawsuit here.

Comments

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

dear steve,

love apple's product, but you didn't invent multitasking, object-oriented operating systems, a major basis for your patent dick-sizing of late, so, well, fuck you.

#

[lwj2.livejournal.com]

Steve Jobs et al. are responsible for taking Apple from a major market share of desktop users to a niche operation that most software developers won't write for. (Yes, I'm aware that Adobe writes for Apple -- tell me about the last really hot game you played on a Mac.)

Now that's how you really screw your shareholders.