The copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Apple Computer against Microsoft Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co over the Windows, Presentation Manager and New-Wave screen user interfaces took a potentially decisive turn against Apple on Friday when Judge William Schwarzer ruled that only overlapping windows and the way icons are positioned and moved across the screen were not included in the licence agreement between Apple and Microsoft in 1985. The judge does not believe that the remaining issues are serious enough to put before a jury, since it is not at all clear that Apple had any copyright claim on the concept of overlapping windows because there is evidence to favour the Microsoft claim that windows were already in the public domain at the time Apple introduced the product. Xerox Corp certainly had the technology before Apple and Microsoft is now expected to ask the for a summary judgement. Apple is still expecting to win on the issue of overlapping windows, which it claims is the crux of the lawsuit.
