Yeah there's so much nonsense perpetuated about Quantel being litigious. They only sued 2 companies in 30 years (compare that to Adobe's continuous malpractice

Yeah there's so much nonsense perpetuated about Quantel being litigious. They only sued 2 companies in 30 years (compare that to Adobe's continuous malpractices!) and one was Spaceward who literally advertised their clone as a "cheaper Paintbox" and the other was Adobe for copying 5 or 6 elements of the Paintbox. Adobe couldn't show they didn't copy the Paintbox (they had a long history of copying software) so used Apple's lawyers to find previous use of the Paintbox features in US research labs. The 1997 case was heard in Delaware, where the Silicon Valley heavyweights pooled their resources to defeat the British company. The idea that Quantel were greedy and monopolistic is laughable considering how many paint systems were around and how few times Quantel ever sued over their patents - such as the pressure sensitive stylus. Even more laughable notion when Adobe had been fined by the FTC for destroying freehand, a competitor to Illustrator 3 years before the Quantel case. Quantel lost, Adobe became the monopolistic monolith with the paragraphs of malpractice criticisms on its wiki page, and of course the winner gets to write history as if they were the innocent victim fighting for the end user. Laughable really. Fact is, Quantel didn't ever want to be a retail multinational like Apple or software company like Adobe. Paintbox was launched before Adobe existed. Paintbox was used to create adverts for Photoshop showing things Photoshop couldn't do yet. In 1993, 8 years after Quantels Graphic Paintbox could! Yes it was more expensive but that's because it was bespoke, not a discount in a box. Obviously Quantel worked in a niche area with few high end users, so people are going to say they were elitist, evil or whatever. The facts don't match. Two lawsuits in 30 years. Lots if paint systems using a stylus angle tablet that emulated airbrush and paint in the 80's. Quantel didn't stop any of them. I should also point out that there is a fondness for Quantel as a company by former employees and end users that you don't have for Adobe. The inventor of the Paintbox spent his retirement helping rebuild Alan Turing's Bombe, not hanging out in Aspen or Monaco. Quantel did amazing things either first (live picture in picture, plus online linear video editing with the 1985 Harry) or the best - Paintbox, Mirage (live 3D), Graphic Paintbox (photoshop in 1985). They revolutionized broadcast TV, transforming it from analog to digital with some boffins in a small British town without the Silican Valley mega rich ecosystem. Anyone who dismisses them has no real clue.