Article: Intellectual Property Legislation
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Intellectual Property Legislation
Contents |
Definition of Intellectual Property Legislation
Intellectual property legislation refers to both global and country specific laws and legal policies related to intellectual property rights (IPR). Every industrialized nation of the world has adopted an intellectual property protection system that provides exclusive rights to inventors and creators for a limited term as a quid pro quo for the public disclosure of inventions and creations. [1]
As a result of IPR legislation, a unique development made anywhere in the world can be protected globally. As technology itself has become more pervasive and more complex over the centuries, so have the laws governing the exclusive rights granted to inventors and creators become more complex and less comprehensible [1]
Once an invention or other creative work is completed, the creator has the right of ownership of the invention, writing, song, software, sculpture, etc. that the creator has developed. The basic right is commonly called copyright and it forms the basis for all intellectual property rights. IPR also include other means of protection such as patents and trademarks that are also enforced by law. These laws together enable to creator to obtain exclusive control over the use and duplication of the invention or creative work. [1]
Commonly, the one obtaining protection must be the inventor or the creator of the particular technology or creative work for which such protection is sought. The inventor or creator also has the right to endow others, such as an employer, with the exclusive right to exploit the invention and/or creation. [1]
Digital technologies are a new challenge to the basics of intellectual property law: they improve work transmission and reproduction conditions making infringement of IPR easier than ever before. Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems have been set up as a need and a consequence of this environment. [2]
Types of Intellectual Property Legislation
See the article on intellectual property rights for more detailed descriptions on different types of IPR.
Relevance to software business
Copyright in software
The programs software engineers write are automatically protected by copyright [3], though there are certain limitations. The piece of software must be somehow novel or "inventive", straight forward or conventional programming solutions are not protected by copyright (programming that two separate coders would come up with easily and independently).
Software patents
Software patents have been under a heavy debate over the years. EU legislation prohibits patenting software though patents have been granted in European countries for computer programs for at least 30 years. Interestingly, most of them have been granted to US and Japanese companies. [3].
Today, a patent for software can be granted in EU if there is a technical step (as opposed merely to the equivalent of a mental process), such as controlling the internal working of a computer more effectively, or making more economical use of memory, or providing an improved user interface. The European Patent Office (EPO) has granted thousands of patents for software in the last quarter of a century. [3]
In the US it is certainly easier to get a patent for computer programs. A risk has been identified of US patents being granted too easily and that has brought the law into disrepute. [3]
As an example of the "loose" patenting in US, Amazon.com Inc. has a legit patent which covers placing an order over the Internet by just one mouse click (US Patent #5,960,411 [1]). This concept can be seen to have wide commercial application, but it can be disputed if it is an invention in the usual sense. Under US law it is, elsewhere it is not. [3]
Theoretical approaches
Currently interesting research questions
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 H. Rockman, An Internet Delivered Course: Intellectual Property Law For Engineers And Scientists, 34th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 2004
- ↑ M. Dulong de Rosnay, Digital Right Management Systems Toward European Law: between Copyright Protection and Access Control, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on WEB Delivering of Music, 2002
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 V. Irish, Are you protecting your intellectual property?, IEE Review, September 2001
Categories: Stub articles | General articles | Management | Law | IPR