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{{Short description|Former software company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Paperback Software International
| logo =
| type = Limited
| industry = [[Software company|Software engineering]]
| fate = Dissolved
| predecessor =
| successor =
| founded =
| founder = [[Adam Osborne]]
| defunct =
| hq_location_city =
| hq_location_country = United States
| area_served =
| key_people =
| products =
| owner =
| num_employees =
| num_employees_year = 
| parent =
| website =
}}

'''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,<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/05/business/a-divisive-lotus-clone-war.html
|title=A DIVISIVE LOTUS 'CLONE' WAR |date=February 5, 1987 |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/15/business/three-officials-quit-paperback.html
|title=Three Officials Quit Paperback
|date=June 15, 1988 |url-access=limited}}</ref> database [[VP-Info]], and the [[VP-Expert]] [[artificial intelligence]] software. VP-Expert was developed by Brian Sawyer<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/vpexpert0000sawy |title= VP-Expert |date= 1987 |isbn= 978-0-87142-028-2 }}</ref> The company was headquartered in [[Berkeley, California]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ca/C1178123 |title= Paperback Software International}}</ref>

==History==
The company was found by a United States court to have [[copyright infringement|infringed on copyright]] for reproducing the [[Look and feel|appearance]] and [[menu (computing)|menu]] system of [[Lotus 1-2-3]] in its competing spreadsheet program,<ref>{{cite news
|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/29/business/lotus-wins-copyright-decision.html
|title=Lotus Wins Copyright Decision |date=June 29, 1990 |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/03/business/lotus-sues-2-on-copyright-violation.html
|title=Lotus Sues 2 On Copyright Violation
|author=John Markoff |date=July 3, 1990 |url-access=limited}}</ref> even though they did use different [[source code]].<ref>{{cite web
|author1=bsobel|title=Lotus Development Corp. v. Paperback Software International
|url=https://h2o.law.harvard.edu/collages/18998 |website=H2O |accessdate=May 29, 2016|date=January 19, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Gerard J. Lewis
|title=COMMENT: LOTUS DEVELOPMENT CORP. V. PAPERBACK SOFTWARE INTERNATIONAL: BROAD COPYRIGHT PROTECTION FOR USER INTERFACES IGNORES THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY'S TREND TOWARD STANDARDIZATION.
|url=https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=52+U.+Pitt.+L.+Rev.+689&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=a49805ad22759b3d5669f5ca1d88ebaa
|website=LexisNexis |accessdate=May 29, 2016 |year=1991}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|author=Brian Johnson
|title=An Analysis of the Copyrightability of the "Look and Feel" of a Computer Program: Lotus v. Paperback Software
|date=1991
|url=https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/64566/OSLJ_V52N3_0947.pdf
|publisher=The Ohio State University Law Review|hdl=1811/64566
|accessdate=May 29, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Pamela Samuelson
|title=Computer Programs, User Interfaces, and Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act of 1976: A Critique of Lotus v Paperback
|url=http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol55/iss2/17ontext=lcp |website=Duke Law |accessdate=May 29, 2016|date=1992}}</ref> 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|date=January 2012}}

==Overview==
Not only was VP Planner cheaper, it was regarded by some as better.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[InfoWorld]]
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KDsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA77
|title=InfoWorld VP Planner Product Review|date = 2 April 1990}}</ref> Adam Osborne's US Paperback Software business folded following lengthy litigation with [[Lotus Software]].<ref>Russo, J. and J. Nafziger. "Software 'Look and Feel' Protection in the 1990s"</ref> The litigation began in 1987, when Lotus initially won a copyright claim in 1990 against Paperback Software.<ref>Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Paperback Software Int'l, 740 F. Supp. 37 (D. Mass. 1990)</ref> Lotus sued [[Borland]] over the latter's [[Quattro Pro]] spreadsheet<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/24/business/company-news-action-in-lotus-s-lawsuit.html| title=Action in Lotus's Lawsuit| website=[[The New York Times]]| date=24 March 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=LOTUS DEVELOPMENT CORP. v. BORLAND INTERNATIONAL INC., 49 F.3d 807 (1st Cir. 1995)|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/49_F3d_807.htm|publisher=Cornell Law|accessdate=May 29, 2016}} {{failed verification|date=June 2020}}</ref> 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]].

==Legacy==
[[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.<ref>[[VP-Info]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=November 2019}} 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.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Companies established in the 1980s]]
[[Category:Defunct software companies of the United States]]

Paperback Software - Revision history

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