It’s bad enough when your sworn commercial enemies rip off your designs, but the unkindest cut of all is when one of your buddies, who has quietly signed a non-aggression pact with you, is found guilty of doing it, but that is what has happened between Matsushita and IBM – and only the eagle eyes of a US Customs officer, who ran the BIOS compatibility test program on one of a consignment of Panasonic SX800 Personalikes, spotted the infringement: Matsushita has meekly acknowledged the infringement, declaring that it was the result of a design error, and has agreed to pay IBM a fine for copyright infringement; IBM says the two companies have settled the matter amicably and trusts that it won’t spoil their relationship in the future.
