In a widely-reported development, yesterday the Supreme Court agreed to hear Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd., which challenges the existing framework for assessing the validity of an issued patent.

In a less widely-reported development, yesterday Justice Alito dissented from the denial of certiorari in Harper v. Maverick Recording Co., a case that held a teenager liable for infringing copyrights in a large number of recordings that she downloaded via file sharing technology. Whitney Harper’s chief defense — rejected by the Fifth Circuit — amounted to the proposition that she didn’t know that the music was protected by copyright. Justice Alito points out the incongruity of what amounts to placing a burden of noninfringement on a consumer of digital — i.e., functionally intangible — creative material.

These are two cases, from quite different areas of IP law, where burdens of proof mean a lot.