where does the burden of proof lie in a US patent case? is it the responsibility of the patent-holder to prove that the defendant is violating the patent or is is the responsibility of the accused to prove they aren't.
The argument in this thread seems to suggest that if i hold a patent then i can go and accuse anyone i like of infringing it and force them to provide proof that they aren't... as we all know proving a negative can be a somewhat tricky procedure. This suggests, though, that if i received a letter from the solicitors of a company who had managed to patent the for-loop that i'd have to go through the process of proving they hadn't - which is the responsibility of the people who issue the patents in the first place.... bit of a minefield, really. On 12/18/06, Mariano Iglesias <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Ok but my point is now more related to the fact that CakePHP founding > elements are property of the public domain and knowledge. > > Let's see, CakePHP follows programming patterns established on the > developers such as MVC, Active Record, etc. These, IMHO can't be patented. > Otherwise almost any self-respected framework / product in *any* > programming > language would be liable to law suits. So information, as we all know, > that > is part of the general knowledge can't be patented, no matter how many > tries > you send to the patent office. > > CakePHP is a framework that uses established patterns to help developers > build applications. In reality, there's no innovation there, it is just > the > great and smart effort of how to put stuff together to ease up developing. > So there's no *unique* foundation that can be patented. Therefore, nothing > can be used later on to harass CakePHP developers. > > The case link you sent me is a completely different legal battle: D-LINK > was > violating the terms of the GPL linux license, and D-LINK came back arguing > that the GPL is not a legal binding document (what a pack of bull****) > > So I don't think there's much to go under these issues. CakePHP foundation > elements and work can't be patented because they belong to the public > domain. It will be impossible for someone to patent something as the MVC > pattern just as it would be impossible for someone to patent the concept > of > blogging, for that matter. > > -MI > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Remember, smart coders answer ten questions for every question they ask. > So be smart, be cool, and share your knowledge. > > BAKE ON! > > -----Mensaje original----- > De: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] En nombre > de Nimrod A. Abing > Enviado el: Lunes, 18 de Diciembre de 2006 02:47 a.m. > Para: [email protected] > Asunto: Re: Legal Concerns Regarding CakePHP and Cake Software Foundation > > Actually the license is not at issue here. The licenses on most FOSS > software normally only cover issues regarding ownership and > distriibution of the code, works derived from the code, and > modifications to the code. There is no question that software > licenses, at least to my knowledge the BSD and GPL, *will* stand up in > court. But only if the concerns in question are what I have enumerated > above. This has been proven in one court case at least for the GPL. > See: > > http://www.technewsworld.com/story/53212.html - the D-Link case. > > The main concern, at least for my employer, is someone or some company > coming up with a submarine patent on some crucial part of CakePHP and > then using that patent to harass or sue CakePHP users. The MIT license > that covers CakePHP code only covers ownership, distribution, derived > works and distribution of derived works, modifications and > distribution of modifications, and of course the "NO WARRANTY" clause. > > It does not matter if the holder of the submarine patent is *not* a > contributor to CakePHP who has signed the CSL or CSSL. He just has to > hold a patent, make a case for its enforcement and then use it to > harass or sue users. Note that this is not only a concern for CakePHP, > this also applies to other FOSS projects as well. > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cake PHP" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cake-php?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
