Franklin Computer Corporation

Franklin Electronic Publishers, Incorporated (formerly Franklin Computer Corporation) is an American consumer electronics manufacturer based in Burlington, New Jersey, founded in 1981. Since the mid-1980s it has primarily created and sold hand-held electronic references, such as spelling correctors, dictionaries, translation devices, medical references and Bibles. It was publicly traded on the under the symbol FEP until September 30, 2009 when it merged with Saunders Acquisition Corporation.

Franklin was originally named Franklin Computer Corporation. It was a manufacturer of clones of the Apple II series computer, which it first marketed in 1982.

In early 1982, Franklin released the Franklin Ace 100, and in March of the same year, the Franklin Ace 1000; they were very close copies of the Apple II and Apple II Plus computers, respectively. The motherboard design is nearly identical and Franklin also copied Apple's ROMs. Two months later, Apple Computer sued Franklin for copyright violation. Franklin initially won. (See Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp..)

Franklin followed with the Ace 1200, which included two built-in 5¼" floppy drives and a Zilog Z80 processor for CP/M compatibility—a popular third-party option for the Apple II. The Ace 1200 was identical to the Ace 1000, but with the addition of a built-in floppy drive and four expansion cards pre-installed (one of which offered color video; the 1000 was monochrome).

In August 1983, a court ruled against Franklin, which had argued that because computer code generally did not exist in printed form, it could not be copyrighted. Franklin freely admitted it had copied Apple's ROM and operating system code. However, Franklin was able to get an injunction that allowed it to continue marketing its computers. This case had lasting implications, setting precedent for copyright and reverse engineering. The case was still frequently cited more than 30 years after the August 1983 ruling.

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