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July 1, 2005 4:57 PM PDT
Go files antitrust suit against Microsoft
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The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, was filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by S. Jerrold Kaplan, Go's founder.
"Microsoft undertook to 'kill' Go by resorting to many of the same collusive and exclusionary tactics Microsoft used against Netscape, Sun, Novell...and others," according to the complaint, which was seen by CNET News.com.
The lawsuit also claims that Microsoft stole Go technology, that the company threatened Intel, which had invested in Go, and that it used "incentives and threats" to coerce Compaq, Fujitsu, Toshiba and other computer makers not to use Go's operating system.
Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake rejected Kaplan's assertions.
"These claims date back nearly 20 years," Drake said on Friday. "They were baseless then and they are baseless now."
Drake noted that handwriting recognition technology "had severe limitations in the late 1980s and early 1990s."
While Microsoft's original pen-enabled version of Windows stirred little interest, the company has continued to pursue handwriting recognition as a means of computer input, most recently with its Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
The suit came as Microsoft resolved yet another of its outstanding antitrust matters, announcing on Friday that it has made an $850 million deal with IBM. The company has also settled antitrust claims with Sun Microsystems, AOL Time Warner, Gateway, Be and others.
The ill-fated Go was merged into an AT&T subsidiary in 1994. The company's claims were assigned to Lucent in 1996 when that company was split off from AT&T. Kaplan regained the rights to Go's claims in April, according to the lawsuit.
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short version: Go made some technology; I think it was an OS.
MS found out and started an OS to compete with Go and stole
some Go tech. Intel invested in some way in Go, but MS
threatened Intel and Intel dropped Go like a brick. Go went
under and looks like AT&T took them in. MS dropped making
what would compete with Go's tech, thus squashing another
competitor without releasing a product.
short version: Go made some technology; I think it was an OS.
MS found out and started an OS to compete with Go and stole
some Go tech. Intel invested in some way in Go, but MS
threatened Intel and Intel dropped Go like a brick. Go went
under and looks like AT&T took them in. MS dropped making
what would compete with Go's tech, thus squashing another
competitor without releasing a product.
intellectual property? Hint: Their intials are MS.
If your neighborhood had a rash of propert theft
and everyone has an open door policy except for
one home owner, who would be the first suspect?
One of the reasons open source is open, there is
nothing to hide. The opposite is true in closed
source.
Indemnity may be required if you intend to steal
or are buying from a thief.
intellectual property? Hint: Their intials are MS.
If your neighborhood had a rash of propert theft
and everyone has an open door policy except for
one home owner, who would be the first suspect?
One of the reasons open source is open, there is
nothing to hide. The opposite is true in closed
source.
Indemnity may be required if you intend to steal
or are buying from a thief.
- Support for Jerry
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by dbeberman
December 3, 2005 6:59 AM PST
- Having lived through the history of GO, and also lost a company over it, have to say, Good Luck, Jerry. Hope you win this one. PenPoint was a great OS, way ahead of its time, as were the products based on it, and pen-based tablets.
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