Court dismisses 'OS 9' suit

Apple Computer Inc. said Friday that a federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by OS-9 developer Microware Systems Corp. over the moniker "Mac OS 9." The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa held that Apple is entitled to use the Mac OS 9 name under the doctrine of "fair use," the Cupertino, Calif., company said, and issued an order denying Microware's motion for a preliminary injunction. Des Moines, Iowa-based Microware began using the OS-9 name for its Unix-derived operating system in 1980; Apple began shipping Mac OS 9 in October 1999. -- Matthew Rothenberg, ZDNet News