

Thank you Xerox (for not Patenting the GUI) - hendler
http://supercalafragilisticexpialadocio.us/thank-you-xerox-for-not-patenting-the-gui

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hga
It's worth pointing out that the most fundamental stuff came from Douglas
Engelbart's SRI group, e.g. the mouse and windows:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLS_%28computer_system%29>

Plus Xerox _did_ sue Apple on the basis of copyright but the case was
dismissed since the statute of limitations had expired.

What Xerox did and didn't do when it mattered (before this) is well described
by the title of a book and the book itself: _Fumbling the Future: How Xerox
Invented, then Ignored, the First Personal Computer_
([http://www.amazon.com/Fumbling-Future-Invented-Personal-
Comp...](http://www.amazon.com/Fumbling-Future-Invented-Personal-
Computer/dp/1583482660/))

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noonespecial
I think it had a lot to do with the mentality of the day. Back then, stuff
like guis was something cool that you _did_ with patented technology, not the
thing itself.

Much more recently, we've begun patenting all of the ramifications of
technology as well.

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teilo
Well, PARC has a history of not patenting perfectly patentable ideas. Like
Ethernet.

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rbanffy
IIRC, at the time Star went to market, they couldn't patent ideas.

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johnohara
Does Xerox still own the issuance of ethernet MAC addresses?

~~~
wmf
I think it's now done by IEEE:
<http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/index.shtml>

I doubt OUIs were ever a profit center anyway.

