High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Apple Computer, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation, 35 F.3d 1435 (9th Cir. 1994) was a copyright infringement lawsuit in which Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) sought to prevent Microsoft Corporation and Hewlett-Packard from using visual graphical user interface (GUI) elements that were similar to those in Apple`s Lisa and Macintosh operating systems. The court ruled that, "Apple cannot get patent-like protection for the idea of a graphical user interface, or the idea of a desktop metaphor ..." In the midst of the Apple v. Microsoft lawsuit, Xerox also sued Apple alleging that Mac`s GUI was heavily based on Xerox`s. The district court dismissed Xerox`s claims without addressing whether Apple`s GUI infringed Xerox`s. Apple lost all claims in the Microsoft suit except for the ruling that the trash can icon and folder icons from Hewlett-Packard`s NewWave windows application were infringing. The lawsuit was filed in 1988 and lasted four years; the decision was affirmed on appeal in 1994, and Apple`s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court denied.