© Mark Ollig
It was a legal and technological battle over the origins of the graphical user interface.
On Dec. 14, 1989, Xerox Corp. filed a lawsuit against Apple Computer, Inc. for $150 million, alleging they copied proprietary elements of its Xerox Star and Smalltalk systems.
Initially developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the early 1970s, these features included a graphical user interface system (GUI, pronounced “gooey”) with file icons, pull-down menus, drag-and-drop functionality, and object-oriented design.
Apple incorporated its Finder GUI into its Lisa and Macintosh (Mac) computers, released in 1981 and 1982, respectively, designed to be used with a mouse.
Xerox claimed that Apple’s Finder technology was derived from Xerox’s Star 8010 Information System computer, which was designed in the late 1970s and released in 1981.
In the 1980s, “Finder” was an intuitive file manager and graphical user interface for Mac users. It made managing files and navigating the computer’s graphical interface easy and efficient.
The 1973 Xerox Alto prototype’s advanced hardware and software desktop graphical user interface with icons and mouse interaction influenced Xerox’s Star and Apple’s operating systems.
In April 1981, the Xerox Star computer was released with its groundbreaking GUI. “It was completely different and so much better than what had been before. We believed we were changing the world,” said Terry Roberts, who designed and tested the user interface.
Xerox felt the unauthorized use of its graphical interface elements had a considerable influence on subsequent interfaces, especially those of the Apple Lisa and Macintosh.
Xerox accused Apple of unlawfully integrating its design features into the Lisa and Macintosh, including the desktop interface, icons, and drag-and-drop actions, without acquiring licensing from Xerox Corporation.
Xerox stated Apple had access to its technology during the late 1970s and 1980s by hiring knowledgeable Xerox Star computer software developers and used concepts from its Smalltalk object-oriented language, which is said to have inspired the mouse-driven GUI elements later adopted by Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh.
Smalltalk, an early object-oriented programming language, was developed by Xerox in the mid-1970s.
This language empowered users to interact with a computer operating a mouse, and it laid the groundwork for mouse-driven graphical user interfaces in Apple’s Lisa and Macintosh computers.
The arguments during the case involved copyright law, access to confidential information, and user interface design principles.
Xerox insisted Apple’s copyright claim for the Lisa and Macintosh is misleading and that their design changes do not absolve them of infringement.
Apple claimed significant improvements and innovations on Xerox’s concepts, justifying the originality of the Lisa and Macintosh.
On March 23, 1990, Judge Vaughn Walker of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Apple, dismissing most of Xerox’s infringement claims.
Judge Walker cited several factors, including fair use arguments and insufficient similarities between the graphical user interfaces.
The court’s decision ruled that Apple did not intentionally commit copyright infringement, nor copy the “expression” of Xerox’s technology but rather the abstract “ideas” behind it, which are not protected by copyright law.
The verdict given by the court did not provide an explicit confirmation that Apple owns the graphical user interface and clarified that its responsibility did not involve creating monopolies or deciding who has the authority to govern the future appearance of graphical user interfaces.
Although Apple admitted to taking inspiration from Xerox’s design, the court found that Apple’s implementation of the GUI was sufficiently distinct and did not directly copy any copyrighted elements, leading to the dismissal of copyright infringement claims.
The verdict justified the widespread use of GUIs, paving the way for their universal application in computing devices.
The NLS (oN-Line System), developed by Douglas Engelbart and his team at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s, introduced graphical computing elements that influenced the development of the graphical user interfaces by Xerox and Apple.
On Dec. 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and his team unveiled NLS at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, CA.
NLS (oN-Line System) was a revolutionary computer collaboration system developed in the 1960s by Douglas Engelbart and his team at the Stanford Research Institute.
NLS featured the first practical features in modern computing, such as a graphical user interface using a mouse, video conferencing (similar to Zoom or Skype), screen projection, creation of hypertext links (a precursor to the Web), file creation, word processing, real-time document collaboration, dynamic text command line editing, list processing, and macro programs.
These features were groundbreaking for their time.
The significance of Engelbart’s presentation witnessed by people over 55 years ago cannot be overlooked, as it laid the foundation for the technologies we use today.
I highly recommend watching Douglas Engelbart’s demonstration at tinyurl.com/NLSbytes.
May the GUI be with you, even in a galaxy far, far away.