Former Go Corp. founder S. Jerrold Kaplan has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft for its monopolistic behavior that date back to early 1990s. According to Kaplan, Microsoft copied its stylus design and later came up with products hinting close similarities to what Go had developed earlier.

Kaplan, who was a Chief Scientist at Lotus Development, said he wanted to work on a pen-controlled operating system. Back then, he said, this concept was unique and unknown. However, he allowed Microsoft engineers access to his developed technology under non-disclosure agreement. The lawsuit links to documents that suggests Microsoft engineers were gathering intelligence on the technology to develop a competing product.

Due to this, Kaplan commented that Microsoft attempted to "kill" Go Corp. in its early stage. Microsoft managed to persuade OEMs such as Compaq, Fujitsu, Toshiba and others into rejecting Go’s technology with incentives and threats.

Kaplan declined to comment on the antitrust lawsuit, but said he was shocked to see evidence against Microsoft and its intentions of defeating Go. Moreover, he commented, "This was a corporate mugging that went uncorrected and unknown" (Quote from an interview conducted last year).

Microsoft spokesperson Stacy Drake said, "These claims are 20 years old and they were baseless then and they are baseless now."

The world’s largest software maker has allegedly copied the stylus design from Go Corp. for its latest Tablet PC product line.