35 F.3d 1435 (9th Cir. 1994) Brief Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) sought to prevent Microsoft Corporation and Hewlett-Packard from using visual graphical user interface (GUI) elements that were similar to those in Apple's Lisa and Macintosh operating systems. Some critics claimed that Apple was really attempting to gain all intellectual property rights over the desktop metaphor for computer interfaces, and perhaps all GUIs, on personal computers. Apple lost all claims in the lawsuit, except that the court ruled that the trash can icon and file folder icons from Hewlett-Packard's now-forgotten NewWave windows application were infringing. The lawsuit was filed in 1988 and lasted four years; the decision was affirmed on appeal in 1994, [1] and Apple's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied. Apple had previously agreed to license certain parts of its GUI to Microsoft for use in Windows 1.0. When Microsoft made changes in Windows 2.0, such as overlapping windows and other more Macintosh-like GUI features, Apple filed suit, and then added additional claims to the suit when Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Apple claimed the "look and feel" of the Macintosh operating system, taken as a whole, was protected by copyright, and that each individual element of the interface (such as the existence of windows on the screen, the fact that they are rectangular, are resizable, overlap, and have title bars) was not as important as all these elements taken together. After long arguments, the judge insisted on an analysis of specific GUI elements that Apple claimed were infringements. Apple came up with a list of 189 GUI elements; the judge decided that 179 of these elements had been licensed to Microsoft in the Windows 1.0 agreement, and most of the remaining 10 elements were not copyrightable—either they were unoriginal to Apple, or they were the only possible way of expressing a particular idea. In a twist midway through the suit, Xerox filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming Apple had infringed copyrights Xerox held on its GUIs. Xerox had invested in Apple and had invited the Macintosh design team to view their GUI computers at the PARC research lab; these visits had been very influential on the development of the Macintosh GUI. Xerox's lawsuit appeared to be a defensive move to ensure that if Apple v. Microsoft established that "look and feel" was copyrightable, then Xerox would be the primary beneficiary, rather than Apple. The Xerox case was dismissed because the three year statute of limitations had passed — Xerox had waited too long to file suit. Impact Software developers and the Macintosh user community followed this case with great interest. Some observers cast Apple as the villain, saying that after failing in the marketplace, it was trying to use the courts to corner the market on an idea that was benefiting the world, and if Apple won, the precedent would limit software developers' creative freedom. Apple's critics added that even if this were legally and ethically correct behavior, Apple wasn't the inventor of the GUI or the desktop metaphor in the first place, with many ideas taken from Xerox. Others said Microsoft were the bad guys, brazenly stealing from Apple's work and flouting the law, and that a Microsoft win would set a precedent that would allow big companies to steal the core concepts from any software developer's work and get away with it. As it happened, the court based most of its ruling on the licensing agreement Apple and Microsoft had entered into for Windows 1.0, making a large part of the case a contractual matter rather than a question of copyright law — much against Apple's preference — so it was not necessary for the court to set a look and feel copyright precedent in its ruling. In 1997, five years after the lawsuit was decided, all lingering infringement questions against Microsoft regarding the Lisa and Macintosh GUI, as well as Apple's "QuickTime piracy" lawsuit against Microsoft, were settled, with Apple agreeing to make Internet Explorer the default browser over Netscape, and Microsoft agreeing to continue developing Office and other software for the Mac for the next 5 years, and purchasing $150 million of non-voting Apple stock. Both parties entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement. In recent years, Apple has resumed threats of litigation in this area. One target has been Stardock, whose CEO Brad Wardell once joked that Apple's lawyers had him on speed-dial. Apple was not pleased when skins and themes for WindowBlinds, IconPackager and DesktopX looking similar to their Aqua GUI were released in mid-2000, over six months before the release of Mac OS X.