Re: Question about Cocoa/Gnustep

[Gregory John Casamento]

--- Alex Perez <aperez@student.santarosa.edu> wrote:
> Read below...
> 
> > The answer to your question is that GNUstep is legally free to implement
> any
> > and all APIs published by Apple just as other projects (FreeDOS and Wine,
> et
> > al.) are free to implement any and all APIs published by the respective
> > companies whose operating systems they are cloning, even though such APIs
> were
> > never published as an 'open' specification.
> 
> While this is true, the only place where exceptions arise is when you
> start looking at *DESIGN* patents. Apple holds design patents on Drawers
> (NSDrawer) (although, after having read the patent, it seems that it only
> applies to drawers which appear at the *bottom* of windows, but IANAL),
> NSSheets, the iTunes user interface, and a few other equally dumb and
> retarded things.

The scope of a design patent is specifically limited to the look of a
particular thing.   It must be a "new, orignal & ornament design for an article
of manufacture".  So long as another implementation doesn't look precisely the
same look, it's okay.

GJC

=====
Gregory John Casamento -- CEO/President Open Logic Corp.


        
                
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