Green Hills Responds to Express Logic Injunction: "It's okay to completely copy somebody else's interface"

After reviewing the copyright claim issued by Express Logic yesterday, Green Hills called the the allegations that Green Hills had illegally copied the ThreadX API ridiculous. In fact, Green Hills said that it would be allowed to exactly copy the application interface if it wanted as "It's been done many times by everyone in this industry, including Express Logic."

As VDC is not a legal body, we will reserve judgement until the matter has been decided by the arbitrators.

"µ used our APIs!" - Express Logic seeks injunction against Green Hills Software

Today, Express Logic announced that it would would seek to stop Green Hills Software from marketing its small footprint µ-velOSity operating system released in April of this year. Express Logic cited the similarity in the API structure between the Green Hills product (as sourced from a Green Hills Software Evaluation CD) and Express Logic's ThreadX operating system and further contended that the API used in µ-velOSity is a departure from the API structure used in other OSs in the Green Hills family.

These accusations are interesting when considered in conjuction with claims made on the release of µ-velOSity -- with Green Hills explicitly noting that the µ-velOSity product featured "an upward compatible API with velOSity and INTEGRITY." In fact, the idea of being able to write to a common set of APIs as a company scaled its product seemed to be a point of focus upon the release.

In fairness, Green Hills has yet to respond comments regarding the allegations, and any judgement has yet to be decided (Express Logic is opting to settle this matter through arbitration in conjunction with its existing reseller agreement.)

It will be interesting to hear the other side of the story.

Toyota to build own operating system

Toyota announced last Thursday that it will be working with Nagoya University to design its own operating system, due for release in 2010, to handle both vehicle control and in-car systems.