Apple v. Franklin

Citation: Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp., 714 F.2d 1240, 219 U.S.P.Q. (BNA) 113 (3d Cir. 1983), ''cert. dism.,'' 464 U.S. 1033 (1984).

The appellate court reversed the district court's denial of a preliminary injunction in an action for copyright infringement of Apple's operating system software. The appellate court held that:


 * 1) Both source code and object code are protected by copyright;


 * 1) The fact that software is embodied in a ROM (read-only memory) does not deprive the program of copyright protection; and


 * 1) As a matter of first impression, operating system software are not deprived of copyright protection merely because the code implements methods, processes, ideas and systems which themselves are uncopyrightable under 17 U.S.C. §102(b).