Today discussion• Intellectual property.

• What exactly is intellectual property ?

• Types of intellectual property. Patents, Trademarks and Designs.

• The ”BIG PICTURE” (Discussions)

Ethical issues and challenges in a new software age, with regard to Intellectual property.

A grant of rights to creators enhances incentives to invest in innovation & make innovative products available

Why do we need IP?

”Defining: Intellectual Property”

”Creativity or Innovation” (Creation of the mind)

Facilitates people to own their creation.

Gives ”Legal Entitlement” (A grant of rights)

Like ”Real Property” (Can be bought,sold,licensed,exchanged, given

way or authorized)

In short: Can be classified as a collection of legal doctrines that protect creative assets and efforts.

Types of Intellectual Property

• Patents

• Trade marks

• Trade Secrets

• Copyrights

PatentsA patent gives an inventor the right for a limited period

to stop others from making, using or selling an invention

without the permission of the inventor.

Basic conditions must be fulfilled:

Should not be a part of the "state of the art". (Everything that has been made available to the public before)

Must involve an inventive step

Must be industrially applicable

What can be patented ?

Design, invention, process, software system

AdvantagesAdvantages::Strong protection- total Strong protection- total exclusivityexclusivity

DisadvantagesDisadvantages::Long, expensive, technical Long, expensive, technical processprocessMust make public all detailsMust make public all details

TrademarksA trade mark is any ”sign” which can distinguish the goods

and services of one trader from those of another .

The ”sign’s” implication:

Words

Logos

Colours (Ferrari’s trademark colour RED)

Slogans

Three-dimensional shapes

Sounds and gestures (Catoons)

Trade Secrets

• Any formula, pattern, device, or compilation of information which is secret and give one an advantage in business.

• Owner must make reasonable efforts to safeguard the secret.

• AMD/ Cyrix vs. Intel

Big Picture

• IP rules well-suited to manufacturing era, but will they do as well for the information age?– More know how borne on or near the face of

information products (e.g., biotech, software)– Some valuable information products don’t fit the old

paradigms (e.g., software, databases)

• How to maintain balance in the law?– IP law works in part because of limitations (e.g.,

reverse engineering, reuse of information & ideas)– Not the case that more IP is necessarily better IP

Big Picture

• Computer software was first big challenge because it is a machine whose medium of construction happens to be text– Machines, machine parts not copyrightable– Not a “literary work” in traditional sense– Texts and information innovations historically not

patentable– Benson decision: only processes that transform

matter can be patented– Source code may be trade secret, but program

contains source equivalent; accessible through decompilation

Big Picture

• Early on Software was not considered a

patentable item.

• Patents have since been given for certain pieces of software and for “processes”.

• Some software patents include: LZH encoding,RSA Encryption (expired).

Big Picture

• One reaction to the costs of certain software packages and to sometimes restrictive licensing has been the growth of Open Software.

• – Richard Stallman• – Linus Torvald• – Many Others• But even these people are constantly

discussing what fair use of the work is…

Big Picture

• Resolution of software dilemma: – Copyright now protects source & object code, fanciful

user interface designs, some structural design features

– Patent now protects algorithms, methods of operation, functional user interface designs

– Fair use to decompile for legitimate purpose– Trade secret law protects unpublished source, design

documents, & some program internals– Hotly contested whether licenses forbidding reverse

engineering should be enforceable

Discussions

• Are patents good for technology and people?

• Should software be patentable?

• What is fair use of a product?