ABSTRACT
The interoperability debate appears to have reached a plateau. The copyright laws throughout the world seem to be striking the proper balance between protecting developers against piracy, but not preventing the interoperability necessary for legitimate competition. A secretary trained to use one word processing program, for example, can be retrained to use another with a completely different user interface. So many software copyright infringement cases involve user interfaces suggests that competitors feel compelled to use screen displays similar to those already on the market. The massive law suit brought by Apple against Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard for their alleged infringement of the overlapping windows in the Macintosh graphical user interface demonstrates the permeation of a user interface case by interoperability concerns. The examining corps' unfamiliarity with software technology also leads to what the industry perceives as misjudgments concerning the novelty and non-obviousness of software-related inventions.
