Company type | Limited |
---|---|
Industry | Software Engineering |
Founder | Adam Osborne |
Fate | Dissolved |
Headquarters |
Paperback Software International Ltd. was a software company founded in 1983 by Adam Osborne to manufacture discount software such as word processor Paperback Writer and related spell checker Paperback Speller, spreadsheet VP-Planner, [1] [2] database VP-Info, and the VP-Expert artificial intelligence software. VP-Expert was developed by Brian Sawyer [3] The company was headquartered in Berkeley, California. [4]
The company was found by a United States court to have infringed on copyright for reproducing the appearance and menu system of Lotus 1-2-3 in its competing spreadsheet program, [5] [6] even though they did use different computer code. [7] [8] [9] [10] The loss of this lawsuit was the main cause for the foundering of the company and paved the way for future copyright law on computer software.[ citation needed]
Not only was VP Planner cheaper, it was regarded by some as better. [11] Adam Osborne's US Paperback Software business folded following lengthy litigation with Lotus Software. [12] The litigation began in 1987, when Lotus initially won a copyright claim in 1990 against Paperback Software. [13] Lotus sued Borland over the latter’s Quattro Pro spreadsheet [14] [15] but, after six years of litigation, lost the lawsuit. The court ruled that it is not copyright infringement to use the Lotus interface as a subset, but, by then, Paperback Software had folded, and Lotus 1-2-3 had faced intense competition from Microsoft Excel.
VP-Info remains in use and continues to be available for download from public software archives, and through the Wayback Machine. VP-Info was revised and updated and re-published by SubRosa Corporation as the Shark database management application. [16][ circular reference] VP-Expert was the top-selling expert systems development tool, with over 120,000 units sold and site licenses at DuPont, Kodak, and the Wharton School of Business.
Company type | Limited |
---|---|
Industry | Software Engineering |
Founder | Adam Osborne |
Fate | Dissolved |
Headquarters |
Paperback Software International Ltd. was a software company founded in 1983 by Adam Osborne to manufacture discount software such as word processor Paperback Writer and related spell checker Paperback Speller, spreadsheet VP-Planner, [1] [2] database VP-Info, and the VP-Expert artificial intelligence software. VP-Expert was developed by Brian Sawyer [3] The company was headquartered in Berkeley, California. [4]
The company was found by a United States court to have infringed on copyright for reproducing the appearance and menu system of Lotus 1-2-3 in its competing spreadsheet program, [5] [6] even though they did use different computer code. [7] [8] [9] [10] The loss of this lawsuit was the main cause for the foundering of the company and paved the way for future copyright law on computer software.[ citation needed]
Not only was VP Planner cheaper, it was regarded by some as better. [11] Adam Osborne's US Paperback Software business folded following lengthy litigation with Lotus Software. [12] The litigation began in 1987, when Lotus initially won a copyright claim in 1990 against Paperback Software. [13] Lotus sued Borland over the latter’s Quattro Pro spreadsheet [14] [15] but, after six years of litigation, lost the lawsuit. The court ruled that it is not copyright infringement to use the Lotus interface as a subset, but, by then, Paperback Software had folded, and Lotus 1-2-3 had faced intense competition from Microsoft Excel.
VP-Info remains in use and continues to be available for download from public software archives, and through the Wayback Machine. VP-Info was revised and updated and re-published by SubRosa Corporation as the Shark database management application. [16][ circular reference] VP-Expert was the top-selling expert systems development tool, with over 120,000 units sold and site licenses at DuPont, Kodak, and the Wharton School of Business.