Poor Luther Nussbaum lost his job heading A-T's Macintosh Division when the division lost a boatload of somolians in the last fiscal year. Now Microsoft, tired of waiting for A-T to ship the SQL Server Edition of dBase IV, has revoked A-T's exclusive SQL Server reseller status and is moving to reposition the product this year by licensing marketing rights to other companies. Ashton-Tate can continue to sell SQL Server non-exclusively through July, 1990 but, if A-T fails to ship a SQL Server front end by that date, the company's reseller authorization for the product will be suspended.
The Whole Enchilada
In mid-December '89, Xerox filed a $150,000,000 federal lawsuit against Apple Computer charging copyright infringement of its Star interface software. In the suit, Xerox claims to be the progenitor of Apple's Lisa and Macintosh computers and further asserts that Apple used Xerox technology unlawfully. The suit seeks to name Xerox as the “sole and exclusive owner” of all copyrights on its Star interface. The lawsuit further alleges that Apple's software copyrights for its Lisa and Macintosh computers are invalid. David Kearns, Xerox's chairman and CEO, said, “Xerox is not a litigious company, but we have no other recourse than to seek relief from the court for actions we believe to be unlawful and unfair and, if allowed to continue unchallenged, to be against the interests of Xerox, its shareholders, and the computer industry.” Is this a crack in the walls of Jericho? Stay tuned; this may make page one in the coming months.
