Jump to content
  • Checkout
  • Login
  • Get in touch

osCommerce

The e-commerce.

Sued for running osCommmerce?


xaraya

Recommended Posts

I have an idea, Lets all patent the process of doing business with individuals utilizing a cash register.

 

This type of extortion has to be stopped. This country is fortified by the small business market. Something of this nature could start a trend of large corporations litigating legitimate businesses for the most trivial of things.

 

My 2 cents........

 

Contact your senator, and or local state officials..... Anyone who will listen, we have to put an end to this now!

 

:angry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 118
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I use an LCD screen which is entirely different than a video screen, the patent they are trying to enforce has been superseeded by superior technology. The lawsuit is taking up time and space on an already overworked legal system.

 

But for the sake of argument, lets suppose they declare all commerce that uses video screens an infringement, so no more atm's, no more e-commerce, no more electronic banking, no more online gaming, no more online transactions of any kind unless you pay a heavy royalty ... the economy goes into recession in 6 weeks, depression in 12 weeks and total chaos and anarchy break out by the end of summer ...

 

Or it gets laughed out of court ...

 

Worry about real problems! :lol:

 

 

 

 

If you own or operate an e-commerce web site then you need to know that a company in San Diego, Pangea Intellectual Properties (PANIP LLC) is suing companies all across the country. They claim that if you use graphical and textural information on a video screen for purposes of making a sale, then you are infringing on their patent. US Patent No 5,576,951.

And if you accept information to conduct automatic financial transactions via a telephone line & video screen, you're infringing on their patent. US Patent No. 6,289,319

http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20...20021020S0002/1

http://slashdot.org/articles/02/10/22/0152...1.shtml?tid=155

http://www.youmaybenext.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad that companies are doing this. This is the kind of exposure we need to convince average Americans that allowing companies to patent broad-sweeping ideas and code are hurtful and destructive to society.

 

If people look at this and say "that's stupid," then maybe they'll look on the likes of Microsoft and Apple and say the same thing one day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I Own A Small Buisness But Im Not Worried About This Because They Can't Sue A Minor I Dont Think Can They Im 15 Therefore I Can't BE Sued Right? They Can't Sue MY Parents Cuz They Have Np Hand In My Company.

 

I Have COntacted All My News Channels In Las VEgas I Hoping They Will Get The Word Out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I Own A Small Buisness But Im Not Worried About This Because They Can't Sue A Minor I Dont Think Can They Im 15 Therefore I Can't BE Sued Right? They Can't Sue MY Parents Cuz They Have Np Hand In My Company.

 

I Have COntacted All My News Channels In Las VEgas I Hoping They Will Get The Word Out.

 

I never knew a 15 year old could own a buisness since legal documents have to be signed, taxes have to be paid, licenses have to be applied for, etc. Unless of course someone of legal age signed for you, then they would be on the pike.

 

But then I'm not a lawyer so I could be wrong.

Installed Contributions: CCGV, Close Popup, Dynamic Meta Tags, Easy Populate, Froogle Data Feeder, Google Position, Infobox Header Entire Row, Live Support for OSC, PayPal Seal with CC images, Report_m Sales, Shop by Price Revised, SQL Updater, Who's Online Enhancement, Footer, GNA EP Assistant and still going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never knew a 15 year old could own a buisness since legal documents have to be signed, taxes have to be paid, licenses have to be applied for, etc. Unless of course someone of legal age signed for you, then they would be on the pike.

 

But then I'm not a lawyer so I could be wrong.

Your right.

The age is 18 to own a company,until then Parents are the legal gardians. Who are responsible even legally for thier childrens fisical actions.

 

Generally, his parents should be filling taxes and any type of business that happens for him. Here is the labor laws for a 15 year old. Your parents may want to check this out.

 

http://www.dol.gov/asp/programs/guide/childlbr.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Youths age 14 and 15 may work outside school hours in various nonmanufacturing, nonmining, nonhazardous jobs under the following conditions: no more than three hours on a school day, 18 hours in a school week, eight hours on a non-school day, or 40 hours in a non-school week. In addition, they may not begin work before 7 a.m. nor work after 7 p.m., except from June 1 through Labor Day, when evening hours are extended until 9 p.m. Those enrolled in an approved Work Experience and Career Exploration Program (WECEP) may work up to 23 hours in school weeks and three hours on school days (including during school hours)."

 

YEa Right I Get Home 2pm And Work Til 9pm Each Day Thats 7 Hours a Day Or Around 35 Hours A Week Im NOt Gonna Listen To The Child Labor Law Because Im The One Who made the company therefore i can choose weather or not to disobey the law right? no one is forcing me to work i work for fun i make websites and edit videos so i really dont care about that law one little bit you wasted your time looking it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just out of interest I pointless add that British Telecommunications Research Labs at Adastral Park, Martlesham, actually invented and patented the hypertext link many years ago but when they recently went to court to see if they had any grounds to enforce the patent, they failed on the basis, I believe, that hypertext had become common usage so could not be the subject of a patent.

 

Yup!

 

None of the suits has any merit. You can't get a VALID patent on something already in general use, just a paper one. The patent office issues paper, not privilege. Also, not acting in a timely manner is considered forfieture of patent rights. They are LONG past being able to sue for real - instant dismissal in 50 states. Some people are stupid enough to settle and thats what they are looking for.

 

KA0OSK Midwesttent.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK Guys and Ladies,

 

I just tried to get through the first page of this now 3 pages of post in the forum,

and got bored.

 

Sorry I am not a lawyer, just a osCommerce and any and all features possible I use to make money, including third party processors.

 

Maybe our dear mister Harald Ponce de Leon (osCommerce creator) is on page 2 or 3 with some reply,

but I do not understand nothing in this "legal shit" as a non-english located country what is going on here.

YES, Some new USA law suite, what else is new.

 

I will be doing my business and making money with the GREAT and FREE osCommerce and if ever Harald Ponce de Leon needs our help or financial support I only ask that we stand besides him when he askes.

 

Fair or not,

 

Eangkarn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

:rolleyes: Notice: I have now filed a patent on the wheel--- I may now sue every man woman child and company on the planet for lost royalties. I further intend to file a patent for fire. So, to avoid me suing you, just send me 1.00 and I will remove you from my planetary list of unlawfull users of my patents. If you elect to not send me money, then you must stop using any type of wheel or fire.

 

 

That would be my opening statement to the judge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have just open sourced the un-wheel. Unlike Jim's patent covering a continuosly curving surface that meets itself after arcing 360 degrees, my patent is for an infinite series of very flat surfaces. Each is offset by a minute angle from the last, resulting in the series meeting itself at the beginning. Like I said, it's open source. Everyone is welcome to use it.

 

ed

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

It is possible that this patent would breach all Competition laws in many countries. A situation like this would give this company no competition to a public environment. It may be possible to to contact the countries competition commisions in each country to see if this is the case. If so, the reverse could happen to this company and may lose everything he sued for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Oh I just had to pipe in on this one :). I own a crafting business and we sell wax dipped bears. Now, there is a patent on wax dipped animals (including bears). The owners of said patent are now contacting the hundreds of thousands of crafters who create these items asking for a licensing fee because they have a patent.

 

The problem is, there IS such a thing as prior art. If instructions were posted in a public forum PRIOR to their patent issuance, then their patent is null and void.

 

Now what would prior art be? Hmmm... how about the fact that these folks referenced an internet instructional article on how to create wax dipped bears that was published on an existing website (not their own) in 1998. Or that another company that has been in business since 1995 has become one of the largest retailers of wax dipped bears on the market.

 

Now how can they expect to win that in court when their patent was issued in 2001??? Hmmmm... THEY CAN'T!!

 

Just greedy people out there out to make a buck the easy way. Their lawyer knows they don't have a case - that's why the letters are going out regular first class mail. If they had a case, it would be certified at the very least.

 

They didn't bother going after Yankee Candle Co who just started making them either. Wonder why that is???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Hello to all,

 

I am reading this thread in absolute wonder!!!

I actually had to look for answers to my oscommerce site problems, but accidentally stumbled here upon...

 

I have just one thing to say.

 

If anyone sews somebody in the netherlands(and maybe also in other european countries), the loser of this court-case has to pay for the court costs.

This means his own cost as well as the other person's court costs.

 

 

therefore if i am not absolutely certain that i can win a case . It is very stupid to sew somebody.

 

If those guys mentioned before ever tried to sew me ..well i would let them.. i would let my sister (graduated university of rights) plead in my defense , i wouldn't pay nothing to my sister , but after we've wun this case(for sure!!!).

I garantee you and the sewers out there that my sisters bill will be enormous.

You understand that me and my sister actually can get very rich being sued by those companies...Just make sure you have an understanding beforehand with some friendly/familiar barrister .

 

In reverse if i am a lawyer and i stumble upon a case wich is certain to win, but the client cannot afford an attorney.. i would take this case for free and make an understanding beforehand with this client ; that when we win he would share his gained money with me for helping him win his case.. It's a win win situation for both.

 

I am not familiar with american legislation, but it seems to me that you guys must have a similar system .. and if not plead with your gevernment to change this system because in that case it's blatently wrong and is giving cart blanche to those wannabe sewers.(I am glad that in europe the judges have the common sense not to give in to that kind of sewers)

Recently i heard in the news that we now have one guy who's sewing the tobacco industrie for his lung cancer and i am very curious who's gonna win, in the usa he would definately win , but in europe this is not the case(thanks to our very consious judges).

 

Really i can get my fingers on american stupidity with sewing everybody:

Iff my cup of coffee from mac donalds is to hot , in america i can sew

If i slip in the supermarket, in america i can sew

If i have lung cancer because i chose to smoke early, in america i can sew

If i say that MJ abused me ..well you know the rest.

You sewing guys are absolutely disgusting :x, and if you ever decide to come to the netherlands well you know what i will do.. B)

Kind regards

 

Hakan Haknuz

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Yes, lawsuits are a major problem in the U.S. Too many lawyers and a system that encourages litigation. And then Congress is wondering why more and more companies are moving overseas. Less taxes. Less exposure to lawsuits.

 

Companies like the ones listed who are filing these patents and threatening to sue are simply using scare tactics to get you to cave in. Notice that one of them sued a large company and got their patent revoked. Now they are smarter, they go after companies that don't have the resources (money, time, manpower) to fight a lawsuit. Many companies cave in and pay their license even though they know its bogus.

 

Some of their patents may be legit, but others may have preexisting artwork. But unless you have time to research that and hire a good lawyer to fight, what chance have you?

 

Maybe incorporating overseas for certain types of businesses (i.e. internet only) would be desirable for this and other reasons?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
I would just like to point out here that, it makes perfect sense for PanIp to do what it is doing...

They are not targeting guys like Amazon and what not because they dont yet have the clout to pull it off. Now once there have been enough court cases where they have won, then they can show legal precedence and have a leg to stand on. Not to mention they will have squeezed enough cash from the little guys to fill their warchest so they can fund a big battle with a company with money.

If I were being sued by these ********, I would contact Amazon.com and ToysRUs.com and anyone I could with cash and beg and plead with them to lend an assit, because if they did not then they would be allowing the very same thing to happen to themselves in the future. It may take some yelling and screaming but I am sure that someone somewhere would listen and dedicate the resources to erradicating the Earth of these parasites aka Divine & PanIP and all those like them..

 

----------

 

Since the "losers" in these cases settle rather than pay costs to fight there is no legal precedence in such cases. I suspect that where people actually did go to court they most likely would win and that PanIP etc. always go for the settlement and/or collect some royalty. ( scare tactics )

 

One loss in federal court and their game is over because such a loss would invalidate their patent claim unless it was appealed to higher courts. If that happened to would either validate or invalidate the patent nationwide...not likely.

 

Being a patent issue they must use federal courts so the result of even one case would be almost universal and accepted by other districts.

 

Does anyone have an actual court case to report regarding these matters? Case number and district court? If that court dismisses such a suit then that entire federal jurisdiction is safe as the patent would have been "voided" by that court for such claims.

 

------------

I'm Paul. We developer in Miami Florida since 1995. Not a PHP programmer...I just muddle through with moderate success !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has been 3 years, someone somewhere must have won in that time I'm guessing.

 

I'm guessing, but, if there was any substance to this thing, this list would have already been notified. Dont ya think....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If these patents were legit, and they had the legal ground they claim, then why not go after the big fish?    My guess is it's because they know the big fish will fight them

 

wrong i'm afraid... amazon pays them $40m to drop claim. the world capital of greed is now officially insane.

story here

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I do have extensive experience in the South California courts, in LA, Orange and San Diego Counties.

I am not an attorney but me and several of my friends were sued in different frivolous cases in the last decade. I can assure every one of my readers that in any case where there is serious money to be made they can count on a totally corrupted process.

When there are a large number of possible cases to be filed, based on the same paperwork, only names addresses and some data has to be changed ? that is the ultimate moneymaker for the freaks. A few years ago close to 3,000 cases were filed by a Los Angeles law firm for marginal technical violations by small businesses in the area: City permit not hanged on office wall, estimate not signed by repair shop, etc. Every time the victim was sued he was facing the very same question: Do I hire an attorney for $10,000 to 20,000 and pay more later or do I settle for $5,000 to 7,5000 and walk away from it? A lot of them paid but after a while the hysteria forced the law firm to abandon the ?business?.

You have to understand that behind every case filed there was a judge to allow the case to go ahead! By the time they filed 3,000 cases probably every single civil judge was involved in this scam. Now you do have the option to believe that none of this cash found its way back to the dirty hands of those who created the original opportunities to make this money. I refuse to believe this! The corrupted judges are the organizers and the masters of these phony cases that flood the courts, they keep the corrupted cases alive so the lawyers can keep billing for years on a phony case and they share the proceeds. This is the ONLY reasonable explanation for these events and there is no other.

A few things I have seen personally;

Family court: There is no jury trial anymore, ALL cases decided by judges ? and yes, they do send people, men and women to jail on a daily basis and they also confiscate money, homes and hand it over to attorneys who are insiders for ?distribution?.

Home owners attacked by frivolous suits in incredible large number of cases. Judges will place a lien on your home for any bs case and force you to pay phony bills to attorneys.

Homeowner associations are manipulated into suits by their own attorneys and outside attorneys. They ?fight? for year over bs cases, generating millions of dollars in bills.

In one case ? over a home - the plaintiffs run out of the court on the morning of a jury trial when they realized that certain witnesses were showing up. The appeal court gave them the right for a trial again, after moths and thousands of dollars of additional billings.

A man?s home was taken because his son was exchanging letters with another man ? in a different state ? the other man murdered somebody but the son had no knowledge or participation in/of the action. The son was not the owner of the home. (Guilt by association!)

A man who was employing a phone solicitor in California was criminally sued from another state. The second state stated that the type of solicitation ? offering home loans -was illegal from California to their location. After a year and $25,000 in legal bills they decided that he does not have to go to jail after all. Had he not spent the money they would have issued a criminal arrest warrant and moved to extradite him! I consider this blackmail; they should have known the outcome of their case before engaging an individual in a criminal case!

A simple google search will turn up hundreds of thousands of complaints against the courts and judges. The system is corrupted to the level where truly the only thing that can help is the introduction of a through, nationwide check and balance system for the judiciary. See: www.jail4judges.org

You have to understand one day: The judges are doing whatever they wish because we allow them to get away with anything.

 

I think the best way to handle frivolous law suits is by filing a federal suit for RICO conspiracy and civil rights violations against all judges and attorneys involved. You will find sample cases on the net, modify them and file it in federal court for about $150.00.

You will not win but if we accumulate enough of these cases on file we can start turning the tide.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that Amazon.com has caved in and paid $40 Million (yes you read correctly), the company who owns the ecommerce patent in the usa now has a warchest to start fighting other companies in the usa using ecommerce web sites.

 

You will soon see a large amount of ecommerce sites now going to have to be either licenced (if they can afford it) or shut down. You may wonder why did amazon pay this and not fight it?

 

Well think on this for a bit, if amazon had fought this, dragged it through the courts for years, finially (maybe) won, what would they gain?? By paying out the amount and conceeding that they agree with the patent, they are setting both a precedent for larger companies and giving the patent owner company the ability to go after many more sites.

 

With the licence given to amazon, they are now in the clear to pursue ecommerce, while other companies out there will not enjoy this same licencing. This means that the ecommerce movement in the usa (this is a patent limited to usa companies), maybe subjected to a licence fee, which may or may not be out of reach for the vast majority of business owners.

 

This drop in competition will mean more sales in the long run for amazon, since many of it competitors will not be able to deal with this licencing fee. They will become a monopoly on the Internet in terms of usa representation for online business, or similarly large companies which could afford the licencing fee.

 

What will be the outcome of this? Well usa companies will not be competing on a level playing field anymore. Web sites which utilize the ecommerce functionality will have to move hosting out of the usa, and usa companies will be limited in the ability to sell online, other then companies which can afford the licence fees.

 

Bravo Amazon, not only did they back track on their anouncement to fight this, they have now set themselves up for a monoplistic ownership of sales online for usa companies. I just love the usa patent laws, they will soon drive all business away from the usa to other countries which do not support patents on everything, (I am sure using the washroom is patented too)....

 

cheers and write your local law maker to ask why they do not fight this...

 

Peter M.

Peter McGrath

-----------------------------

See my Profile (click here) for more information and to contact me for professional osCommerce support that includes SEO development, custom development and security implementation

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, these laws that make it possible to patent generic activities are ludicrous and should be repealed.

 

:-" Of course, then I guess I would have to give up the patents I was awarded on breathing as a means to provide oxygen for the body. :o :D

Rule #1: Without exception, backup your database and files before making any changes to your files or database.

Rule #2: Make sure there are no exceptions to Rule #1.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...