🚀 go-pugleaf

kettler@mitme5.mit.edu (KETTLER, THOMAS R.) writes:
: In article <1992Jul31.012302.3009@unixland.natick.ma.us>, cramer@unixland.natick.ma.us (Bill Cramer)  writes...
: >From what I read in the paper last week it would appear that some courts
: >are exercising some common sense in the look-n-feel copyright area.  I
: >don't have the article handy (I'll dig around) but from what I can
: >recollect, the gist was that things that are obvious (like making
: >a spreadsheet look like, well, a spreadsheet) were not copyrightable,
: >nor were basic screen layout (like menu positions).  Blatent things 
: >like using "/-T-L-F1" (or whatever 1-2-3 key sequences look like)
: >were another story.  The article also mentioned patents, but I don't
: >remember any specifics.
: 
: I have a question then. What is somebody had a sequence of \-T-L-F1. 
: Would this be judged as different or would it be judged as the same 
: basic key sequence? I say this to indicate how stupid I think 
: look-n-feel copyrights and lawsuits are.

Who can say?  I would think that the court would have to look at 
the totality of the interface (ie, is the only difference between
1-2-3 and Clone-X a backslash, or are there other significant
differences?).  Then again, I'm not a federal judge:-)

Bill

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