The company was found by a United States court to have infringed on copyright for reproducing the appearance and menu system of Lotus 1-2-3 in its competing spreadsheet program,[5][6] even though they did use different source code.[7][8][9][10] 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]
Overview
Not only was VP Planner cheaper, it was regarded by some as better.[11] Adam Osborne's US Paperback Software business folded following lengthy litigation with Lotus Software.[12] The litigation began in 1987, when Lotus initially won a copyright claim in 1990 against Paperback Software.[13] Lotus sued Borland over the latter's Quattro Pro spreadsheet[14][15] 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.[16][circular reference] 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.
