Quickview Sues Apple Over HyperCard; Claims Patent Infringement
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Two years after Apple introduced HyperCard, the personal computer
giant has been sued over it by a tiny software company. Quickview
Systems announced Tuesday that it has filed a patent-infringement
lawsuit against Apple, claiming HyperCard violates a patent on a
program that Quickview brought out in 1985. Apple has responded
by filing a suit seeking to have Quickview's patents declared
invalid.
 
According to the Quickview suit, HyperCard uses Quickview's
patented technology for displaying parts of a database.
Quickview's patent, US Patent No. 4,486,857, covers technology
that lets software display only portions of multiple fields on a
computer screen, with the ability to see the entire contents of
any given field. Quickview president Paul Heckel created the
software for displaying overlapping "cards" in his database
program, Zoomracks, which Quickview has sold since 1985.
 
HyperCard, available since 1987, was designed by Bill Atkinson of
Apple and is in some ways similar to Quickview's Zoomracks; the
most obvious difference is that while Zoomracks uses "racks" of
cards, HyperCard uses "stacks."
 
After receiving two patents last year, Quickview contacted Apple
and a number of HyperCard software developers, asking that they
pay a patent licensing fee. The lawsuit, filed last month in
Minneapolis, asks for unspecified damages. Lawyers for Quickview
said no announcement was initially made because they hoped the
two companies would negotiate an agreement quietly. When
negotiations didn't move forward, Quickview went public with the
suit.
 
Apple denies that HyperCard infringes any bonafide patents. "We
don't believe we've infringed any valid claims," said Apple
spokesperson Carleen LeVasseur. "The case has no merit." Apple
has filed suit in federal court in San Jose, CA, to have
Quickview's patents declared invalid.
 
                              --- Frank Hayes
 
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