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Founder of Go Computer, Inc. sues Microsoft

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the no-such-thing-as-a-statute-of-limitations dept.

wantobe writes "From Yahoo! News 'Microsoft saw Go's PC operating system as a serious threat to its operating system monopoly and took swift covert action to 'kill' it just as it did the Netscape/Sun Java threat to its monopoly," according to Go's private action in federal court. ' Are Kaplan's complaints warranted, or is he just taking advantage of some recent Microsoft court losses and trying to get his cut? "

3 of 370 comments (clear)

  1. Will this be like the Be, Inc. lawsuit? by CyricZ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Several years back Be, Inc., developers of BeOS, launched a similar lawsuit against Microsoft. While it was touted as the case that would demolish Microsoft, I believe they ended up settling. So I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a repeat in this situation.

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
  2. Re:Pen-based computing is a fairly recent phenomen by Kevin+Burtch · · Score: 5, Interesting


    I have several NCR 3125 NotePad computers that originally ran PenPoint OS.
    These devices were what Microsoft now calls "Tablet PCs".

    When they first came to market, Microsoft panicked and announced "Pen Extensions for Windows" (which added very little to Windows 3.1) and claimed that a buch of new systems were coming out to use it. Typical Microsoft vaporware tactics... everyone decided to wait for the wonderful new MS product instead of buying the PenPoint devices, and the market for them collapsed.

    Considering that it took them this long to actually produce a product, they obviously only made the annoucement to kill any potential competitor from gaining a foothold.
    Call it a conspiracy theory if you wish, but it's a court-proven tactic that MS loves to (ab)use and is quite famous for.

    The handwriting recognition in PenPoint was actually very impressive, by the way.

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    - Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
  3. happened to us too... by micromuncher · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't think Kaplan's complaints are without merrit... because it happened to us.

    I worked at a company making "digital delivery" ware - stuff that allowed try-before-buy and key-based product unlocking from CD.

    Microsoft approached us with interest in the product. However, we could never get them to sign an agreement where they would commit to deploying the technology. They wanted absolutely every detailed spec including code for evaluation, without committing... it suffices to say after a few months with no agreement, we told them we would not release the jewels without an agreement where a product resulted.

    Within two weeks, Microsoft announced their own vapour competetive technology. Its FUD department was publishing slander against our product (their security experts saying DES was better than FEAL, lol). Microsoft was lobbying NTT against us as well as some of our clients. Some new clients bailed because they said "We'll wait for that microsoft solution."

    Does this sound like fair trade practice?

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    /\/\icro/\/\uncher