Software Rights

Software Rights PDF

Author: Gerardo Con Daz

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2019-10-22

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0300228392

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A new perspective on United States software development, seen through the patent battles that shaped our technological landscape This first comprehensive history of software patenting explores how patent law made software development the powerful industry that it is today. Historian Gerardo Con Díaz reveals how patent law has transformed the ways computing firms make, own, and profit from software. He shows that securing patent protection for computer programs has been a central concern among computer developers since the 1950s and traces how patents and copyrights became inseparable from software development in the Internet age. Software patents, he argues, facilitated the emergence of software as a product and a technology, enabled firms to challenge each other's place in the computing industry, and expanded the range of creations for which American intellectual property law provides protection. Powerful market forces, aggressive litigation strategies, and new cultures of computing usage and development transformed software into one of the most controversial technologies ever to encounter the American patent system.

Software and Intellectual Property Protection

Software and Intellectual Property Protection PDF

Author: Bernard A. Galler

Publisher: Praeger

Published: 1995-05-23

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13:

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How has the legal system used its traditional body of copyright and patent law to protect rights in computer software? The last 15 years have changed the entire landscape with regard to the creation and protection of software as intellectual property. Written by a computer expert with extensive participation in some of the most important software trials of the period, this book invites you to think critically about significant software issues and learn about the legal pitfalls surrounding software development in the industry today. The book is organized around various legal issues raised by both plaintiffs and defendants in copyright litigation, and the problems of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office in dealing with the rapid proliferation of applications for software-related patents. The author explains important terms and concepts in software litigation such as infringement, substantial similarity, reverse engineering, the merger defense, and look and feel. A succinct, readable survey for computer professionals, nonlegal academics, and lawyers who need a fast summary of the critical issues and cases in software and intellectual property matters.

What is Protected in a Computer Program

What is Protected in a Computer Program PDF

Author: Josef Drexl

Publisher: Wiley-VCH

Published: 1994-11-29

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13:

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The first few years of the 90s have been extremely important for the development of software copyright both in the United States and Europe. In the United States, major decisions redefined the idea/expression dichotomy in different cases. In Europe, countries are still in the process of harmonizing their national laws with the EC Software Directive. The study compares traditional and evolving copyright standards as applied to computer programs on both sides of the Atlantic. It may well be said that recent case law has brought America closer to Europe. On the other hand, American experience turns out to be a useful guideline for distinguishing between the concepts of idea and expression in the sense of the software directive.