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From: peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva)
Subject: Re: Interface monopolies
Message-ID: <id.D9PU._Z1@ferranti.com>
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
References: <id.J9OU.LJD@ferranti.com> <R0ZPTB3w165w@netlink.cts.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 00:14:40 GMT
Lines: 19
In article <R0ZPTB3w165w@netlink.cts.com> jim@netlink.cts.com (Jim Bowery) writes:
> legislation can clarify such things IF the congressmen receive good
> guidance. What I'm saying is that if you don't have a design patent on
> your interface, you should have no standing to defend it.
You know, this is probably the most sensible comment I've seen come out of
this discussion. I don't, however, see how this can be helped: in other
fields (commercial art, for example) styling and format *have* been
protected by copyright for a long time. A classic case is the typical
copyright on greeting cards and lines of greeting cards. Similar designs,
even under quite broad definitions of similarity, have been found to
violate copyrights. Similarly, there is a copyright that has been defended
successfuly that seems to pretty much cover any use of the word "ILLINOIS",
with a map of the state nestled into the first "L", in a corporate logo.
--
% Peter da Silva % 77487-5012 % +1 713 274 5180 % Har du kramat din varg idag?
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def 3 21 moveto{dup 36 eq{pop/P P not def}{dup 7 and 4 sub exch 56 and 8 div 4
sub P{rlineto}{rmoveto}ifelse}ifelse}forall stroke showpage % `-_-'