Microsoft slapped with $388 million patent verd

[dbot]

MikeB said:

vess13 said:
in that case, why weren't they sued when the copied Xerox's Grafical Interface?

Worse yet, I find it amazing MSDOS was legal at all. It was a direct source code rip off of CP/M (MSDOS at the time was called Quick and Dirty OS). Only more limited and handicapped than CP/M was at the time.

Without MSDOS the industry could have looked a lot different than it is today.

However I am not fond of US patent laws (at least regarding the obvious, old and trivial), but copyright is of course a serious issue. US patents are also an issue regarding overseas R&D, what if every tiny little country in the world would introduce this system...

 

Do you think that Gary Kildal regrets not signing the IBM non-disclosure agreement?