This is revisionism. Now that Apple's back on top, they can afford to re-write history. Apple's patents were worthless. They invented nothing; everything they claimed was prior art. The real story is Microsoft bailed Apple out. Microsoft had several motivations, none of which was settling patent disputes. They wanted to crush netscape. They wanted to demonstrate to the DOJ that they weren't a monopoly. They wanted to counteract the growth of Linux. Apple was more than willing help out.
>> "If we kept up our lawsuits, a few years from now we could win a billion-dollar patent suit. You know it, and I know it. But Apple’s not going to survive that long if we’re at war. I know that. So let’s figure out how to settle this right away"<p>That quote and the title of the article are pretty, um, incongruent.
This blog post from the former CEO of Sun is perhaps relevant:<p>In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.”<p>My response was simple. “Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurrence – do you own that IP?” Concurrence was a presentation product built by Lighthouse Design, a company I’d help to found and which Sun acquired in 1996. Lighthouse built applications for NeXTSTEP, the Unix based operating system whose core would become the foundation for all Mac products after Apple acquired NeXT in 1996. Steve had used Concurrence for years, and as Apple built their own presentation tool, it was obvious where they’d found inspiration. “And last I checked, MacOS is now built on Unix. I think Sun has a few OS patents, too.” Steve was silent.<p>And that was the last I heard on the topic.<p><a href="http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/" rel="nofollow">http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis...</a>
Honestly who upvotes a BGR linkbait article that recycles a Forbes article, adds nothing new but does spend half it's length recounting the unrelated but sensational Android quote from Steve.<p>Think before you click! Don't do drugs. Stay in school....
Is this really news to anyone? I remember the announcement of the 1997 investment. The press statements and coverage at that time said that the investment was one aspect of an agreement to settle all IP-related claims between the two companies.<p><a href="http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-202143.html" rel="nofollow">http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-202143.html</a>
I have a problem with people placing 15 year old conversations inside of quotes.<p>Have you ever played purple monkey dishwasher?<p>Try playing that with yourself, for 15+ years... I doubt hardly any of that quote from Steve Jobs is a "quote".
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHNrqPkefI" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEHNrqPkefI</a><p>The crowd wasn't happy at all when Steve Jobs announced about the partnership with Microsoft. I guess they would have looked back, especially in the last few years when Apple has done so well, and thought that it was indeed a good decision on Steve's part.<p>Edit: The talk about the partnership starts at around 26 mins into the video.
"All I need is a commitment that Microsoft will keep developing for the Mac..."<p>I guess this led to Apple's development of iWork and Safari so that they would not have to depend on Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer.