>Actually, if my poor, tired brain is not misleading me, Ashton-Tate did at one point try to sue either Fox Software or Nantucket (Clipper) or both. Don't think anything came out of it, though.
>
>>If we look at Fox's history, and compare FoxBASE to dBASE III, couldn't it be said that Fox "stole" the interface from dBASE?

John;

Ashton Tate sued Fox Software and Santa Cruz Operation in November 1988
for copyright infringement (FoxBase). The suit claimed "organization, structure and sequence" of the dBase programs reflected forms of expression "original" to Ashton-Tate and that Fox and SCO had illegally copied the "unique look and feel" of the programs, including "commands, menus and text."

There was fear that Fox Software would be shut down because of the Ashton Tate action. This is the period that the term “xBase” came to be as an attempt to not be sued by Ashton Tate because any mention of the term dBase, .dbf, etc. would be cause for a lawsuit. The case against Fox Software which was filed in the state of California went to court and it came to light that dBase was in fact derived from the public domain and created by a government employee at tax payer expense. Remember JPL, Jeb Long, Wayne Ratliff, etc.?

December 11, 1990, the court issued an order invalidating Ashton-Tate's copyrights. The Silicon Valley FoxPro User Group got the news hours after the announcement and we were delighted! Ashton Tate “fell apart” after this and Borland bought the company. Part of the agreement to purchase the company was dropping the many lawsuits Ashton Tate had filed.

I was a member of the IEEE and our organization mentioned it was going to establish a list of standards for the dBase language, around 1988. At the time there were several “flavors” of dBase like languages, each with features the other did not have. This was an attempt to standardize the language syntax and define variations. Ashton Tate sued the IEEE for this action.

Ashton Tate had a large beautiful building in South San Jose, on the way to the garbage dump. If you went straight ahead you would be at the dump and a right turn took you to Ashton Tate, through a tree lined road with deer and other animals. I did not enjoy working as a consultant for Ashton Tate but I did enjoy seeing them go out of business. My relationship with Borland was very positive and professional. Borland helped the dBase, FoxPro etc. communities and this industry that we are a part of in many ways through its actions in acquiring Ashton Tate.

Tom