14 DAY TRIAL // The reasons of their quarrel are Sun Microsystems’ underway project “Project Looking Glass” and the graphical effects implemented in this experiment. The project is referred to as a prototype desktop for the Linux platform, which Sun was developing for a possible official launch. After a testing master pattern was released in 2003, Jonathan Schwartz, Sun Microsystems CEO at that time, apparently received a phone call from Apple’s head, Steve Jobs, as posted on his personal blog. It wasn’t quite a pleasant interlocution, as Jobs threatened to summon the CEO of the company behind Java, according to 9to5mac. Schwartz relates how the conversation developed. “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.’ (IP = Intellectual Property = patents, trademarks and copyrights.) If we moved forward to commercialize it, ‘I’ll just sue you.’”
The former Sun CEO remarked upon with confidence, “‘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 that 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.”
Apple is known to protect its intellectual properties at all costs. On March 2, 2010 the Cupertino, California-headquartered mammoth filed a lawsuit against HTC associated with Google, for violating 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. Google jumped in to back HTC in its legal dispute with Apple.