The 1988 unjust lawsuit of Apple against Microsoft
The following is excerpts from a detailed LowEndMac article on the lawsuit that Apple filed against Microsoft on March 17, 1988, without reason, as the court also recognised. Despite this, generously Gates and Microsoft later on rescued Apple from complete catastrophe.
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(In 1985) Sculley dispatched an Apple lawyer, Jack Brown, to Microsoft’s headquarters to threaten Bill Gates with a lawsuit for violation of Apple’s copyrights on the Macintosh.
Gates was incensed. Development of Windows had begun before the Macintosh was even demonstrated to Microsoft. Besides, Microsoft had licensed GUI elements from Xerox, including a desktop-style interface used on the Xerox 8010, the commercial version of the Alto. (Apple had also licensed the GUI from Xerox for $100 million in Apple stock.)
Bill Gates supposedly called Sculley personally and told him that if Apple was going to sue Microsoft, “I want to know it, because we’ll stop development on all Mac products. I hope we can find a way to settle this thing. The Mac is important to us and to our sales.”
Gates and Microsoft’s chief counsel, Bill Neukom, flew down to Cupertino, and he met with Sculley in the boardroom one on one.
Sculley couldn’t leave the meeting without some sort of concession from Microsoft, and Gates wanted Apple’s cooperation in the nascent (and highly profitable) Microsoft Office.
Both men wanted to avoid a drawn out lawsuit. Gates was gearing up for the wildly successful Microsoft IPO, and Sculley was still trying to popularize the Macintosh.
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