Intellectual Property and Computer Software: the Ongoing Controversy

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, passed on September 16, 2011, was the most significant reform to the patent system in the United States since the Patent Act of 1952, which redefined the patentability of patent to include being nonobvious in addition to new and useful (1). The demanding need for patent reform had been discussed and debated frequently both within the literature focusing on patent trolls and consistently in Congress with the introduction of many patent reform acts that were never enacted: the Patent Reform Act of 2006 at the 109th Congress, the Patent Reform Act of 2007 at the 110th Congress, and the Patent Reform Act of 2009 at the 111th Congress (2-5). The enactment of the America Invents Act in 2011 after the failure of previous reform attempts signifies its importance in addressing the pressing issues of the United States patent system. The America Invents Acts specifically aimed to confront problems that were impeding innovation: the ever-increasing expense of the patent process, the exploitation of the patent system by patent trolls, and the unnecessary complexity and inefficiency of the patent process as a whole.

From a rule utilitarian point of view, from a macroeconomic perspective, granting software patents by giving the exclusive right to sell, use,

And the patent last 17 years, is too long for the software industry. I believe that the time-period is too complicated for an industry that changes every five years. And the main use of software patents is to block out competition. It claims that the government 's policy to allow cross-licensing benefits companies that have large patent portfolios at the expense of their smaller competitors.

In today’s high tech and fast paced society, there is no doubt that personal computers are one of the most important aspects of our daily lives. Microsoft, well known for being the dominant firm in the market for computer operating systems, has been battling the United States Government on account of violating the United States antitrust laws. These laws prohibit companies from forming monopolies or attempting to dominate a specific market (cite).

Before college, when I heard about lawyers I only ever thought of one thing, the bar exam, and how awful it must be to prepare and take such a test. Now, moving steadily through the senior year of my undergraduate degree, my aspirations are quite different than what they were before college. With my changing goals, being a lawyer is now a profession that I wish to be a part of in the not too distant future. Specifically, I am aspiring to work in Intellectual Property Law. This form of law deals with protecting tangible and intangible creations of clients. These tangible and intangible creations range from inventions to symbols and often require being an expert in specific fields, such as industries, the arts, or science (Wilson, 2016).

“Protecting your intellectual property is crucial to your business.” (Hinson, 2014) When business have intellectual property that is going to be popular or helpful in

This paper takes an in depth look at the claims from Microsoft that FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) committed patent infringement in 2006. It also discusses how the events have impacted FOSS, whether negatively or positively and how the actions have changed both since 2006.

Software patentability has been a controversial debate for a long time. Some countries, such as the United States broadly allow software patents. Meanwhile, in most countries, such as Europe and the United Kingdom, patentability of software is on an ad hoc basis, where the certain tests and approaches are adopted and shifted over time. The more pressing question therefore relates to the scope to be accorded to software patents.

Protection of intellectual property (IP) is devised into four parts: copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and patents. Even though all four parts share a common goal, each follow its own special sets of rules and requirements. The part of this paper, specifically concentrated on the copyrights infringement. Although copyright infringement Acts are established and strictly enforced by the federal government, many companies still figure out a way to go around them. One of the biggest controversies of the 21st century is discussed in a case study in this paper “The Copyright Crusher: How Apple’s iTunes is a vehicle designed for copyright infringement and Apple’s legal liability from its creation”. [2] The paper describes the fundamental issues of copyright protections, the way iTunes enable the infringement of the rights, and the legal liability of Apple. The paper explicitly focuses on:

The level of patentability of computer software has not always been clear cut in the United States or around the world. The laws and interpretations of them have changed from the time software came to use. The ease of patentability used to be much higher in the 60s then kept coming down for a few decades. It is still a contentious subject and it is not sure that the current status quo will hold for long.

Counterfeit, piracy, bootleg, or stealing, these are some of the many terms associated with the unauthorized dissemination and distribution of copyrighted music. For over five decades, the music industry in the United States has had to grapple with the effects of such activity. The Copyright Act of 1909 was the first granting exclusive rights to copyrighted music. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was created in 1886 and governs international copyrights. As technology evolved, the music industry was altered in profound ways. Globalization has created a smaller world where information and goods are shared at a pace faster than ever

According to World Intellectual Property Organisation, patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem. The invention potentially owned an economical value, and the patent granted was limited to twenty years to make, use and sell the patented invention. As a pay back, the owner of the patent must publish the technical information about the invention to the public.

Firstly, having intellectual property rights lays good foundation for the software industry. Indeed, the intellectual property rights means having the rights for the creation of his work. For instance, considering an example in the software profession if an individual develops a software code then the individual has the full authority on his creation of the code. Moreover, the individual has the rights for his creation of the software work. Eventually, in the software field if any other individual wants to make use of the code the individual must entreat the approval of the original owner of the software code. Identically, the other individual must cite the work or must refer the original idea of the individual work properly.

Description of cultural attitudes towards and presumption about whether a person can own words and knowledge. Indicate if modern trends such as globalization and easy access to information affected these and give consideration as to whether are also applicable in an organization. Also indicate if the presumptions hold true in ones career as an employee of the organization and how may this essay be relevant to ones work.

Intellectual property is critical to many companies in order to foster innovation and boosting their revenues. Many industries rely on the protection of patents, trademarks and copyrights as they are valuable assets for companies’ success. By protecting intellectual properties, it ensures that the original owner reaps full benefits from his/her ideas, features, products and creations.