Franklin Computer Corporation
The Apple II cloner whose copied ROM handed the US the precedent that firmware and object code are copyrightable.
Franklin Computer Corporation (New Jersey, 1981) built the Ace 100 and Ace 1000 — Apple II-compatible machines that worked by copying Apple's ROM code bit for bit. Apple sued, and in Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp. (1983) the appeals court held that object code and operating systems stored in ROM are protected by copyright — a ruling that shaped all later software law.
Franklin settled in 1984, rewrote its firmware, and eventually switched tracks entirely to electronic dictionaries and spelling aids.