On Sun, 10 May 2009 16:21:02 +0000, Jim Higgins
wrote:

I could be wrong, but I don't recall a case involving MS and Lotus
over Excel/123. I recall Lotus vs Borland over 1-2-3/Quattro
though... and that wasn't about details like precedence of operations

Nope. It was Borland versus Lotus over the look and feel of the
spreadsheet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_v._Borland

There was also Apple versus Microsoft over the Windoze look and feel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_v._Microsoft

However, none of this had anything to do with the operation of the
spreadsheet. That's because the original spreadsheet operation was
defined by Visicalc:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visicalc
Visicalc and spreadsheets were NOT patented and therefore not the
subject of litigation over function or operation:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20050812/1835229_F.shtml

Fun reading on who sued whom:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._litigation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_litigation


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