“I feel for Google – Steve Jobs threatened to sue me, too,” Former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz began his blog post headlined “Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal.”
According to Schwartz, “In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were ‘stepping all over Apple’s IP’,” he said, “If we moved forward to commercialize it, ‘I’ll just sue you.'”
Schwartz told Jobs where to go.
“Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurrence – do you own that IP?”
Jobs fell silent and the matter was dropped.
Schwartz also said that Bill Gates threatened to sue Sun over OpenOffice.
According to Schwartz, Gates told him, “Microsoft owns the office productivity market, and our patents read all over OpenOffice.”
Gates offered to sell Sun a Microsoft Office license, but Schwartz passed and his lawsuit threat went nowhere too.
Schwartz’s blog is titled “What I couldn’t say…” and he intimated that he has a lot more he could say with a book.
May the Schwartz be with you.
