At one point Xerox sued Apple for copying its user interface
At one point Xerox sued Apple for copying its user interface
Yes . . . and then withdrew the lawsuit when Apple pointed out to the new CEO of Xerox that Apple had paid for the right to study the behavior of that precursor Xerox system for a day, and use what they learned. The original Mac OS was derived from that, but it wasn't a copy of the code but was made more compact to run on the limited resources of a 1984 personal computer.This, from Swordmaker, who will confirm/amplify as he sees fit.
Yes, they did. A later CEO, unfamiliar with the company's history had brought the suit. But the suit was dropped when Apple provided proof that they had paid Xerox with 1,000,000 shares of pre IPO common Stock in Apple (worth about $7 million for the rights. Xerox sold the shares after the IPO for around $22 million. Pretty good pay for demonstrating their research and giving Apple permission to use what they saw.