[sbuk]

> Where would Apple be if Xerox had behaved like Apple and MSFT with respect to litigiousness?

They tried and failed for a number of legal reasons, the fact that they had been paid for the access Apple was given amongst them. I'd also ask where would Xerox have been had Doug Engelbart, SRI or Donald Sutherland had been litigious; all had a case against Xerox.

[magicalist]

Notably, Apple also tried and failed to sue Microsoft over the "desktop metaphor" in the 90s, which is also just as well. Things were quite different back then, to all of our benefit. No one had to pay 25 cents per copy to include scrollbars in their application, or 50 cents to include a dialog box.

If anyone is curious about what happened to change things, it was these guys: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/how-a-rogue-appea...

Great article if you're interested in how we ended up in the patent mess we are in.

[throwawaykf02]

Yes, but the article (and the "sponsored comment" at the end) also say that before the CAFC happened, it was a different, though equally painful, patent mess.

[sbuk]

The point goes wooshing by...