Software Patent Law
A patent can be defined as “a legal document granted by the government giving an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, and sell an invention for a specified number of years.” 1 These special rights are given to the inventor as a means of incentive to further advance technology. The origins of patents are unknown, though the distinction of the longest continuous patent system belongs to Great Britain. The British patent system originated in the 15th century, when the Crown first started dealing with the granting of privileges to manufacturers and traders. The earliest known British patent was issued in 1449 for a method of making stained glass.2
Since those medieval beginnings, patent law has grown and evolved due to many factors, one of the most important being the accommodation (whether it be inclusion or exclusion policies) of new technologies. Though many of these policies have been easily agreed upon, accommodating all new advances has not been without conflict. One of the most controversial patent issues was born with the introduction of computers. With computers came the desire to own intellectual property for computer software inventions. The debated value of this relatively new form of invention has given rise to controversies both domestically and abroad.
Ethical Issues
The main ethical issue that has arisen is whether or not patents should be granted for software or ways of doing business. Should the inventors be rewarded for their product or should software be free for all to use? Which would better promote advancement of technology?
Another point of interest with software patents has to do with globalization. Since the software patent issue is not exclusive to the U.S. alone, s...
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...U.S. Company Compelled to License Its Software
by E.U. Antitrust Authorities,”
http://www.hewm.com/use/articles/imshealth.pdf (4 May 2003).
26 Sienhai F. Williamson. “The International Enforcement of Software Copyrights
and Patents,” Computer Law Review and Technology Journal, 1998
http://www.smu.edu/csr/Williamson.pdf (27 April 2003).
27 Spinello. “Frameworks for Ethical Analysis,” Ethical Aspects of Information
Technology, http://cseserv.engr.scu.edu/NQuinn/COEN288/framework.pdf (4 May
2003).
28 “Title 35, Part II, Chapter 10, Sec. 103,” Legal Information Institute,
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/35/103.html (2 May 2003).
29 Will Knight. “UK Defies US on Software Patents,” ZDNet UK News,
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,s2084961,00.html (4 May 2003).
The patent system grants an exclusive right of manufacturing, selling, and profiting from a specific invention. It is designed with the purpose of providing advance research and development and to encourage broader economic activity; however, complete disclosure is required in exchange for the twenty year protection to become monopoly.
Lehman, Bruce. 2003. “The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Patent System”. International Intellectual Property Institute. Pages 1-14.
In week 10 of spring semester we discussed chapter 11’s Intellectual Property Law. “Property establishes a relationship of legal exclusion between an owner and other people regarding limited resources.” In this chapter, we learn that the Constitution allows Congress “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors to the exclusive Right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
However, one prolonged issue that exist in India is the controversies relating to the Intellectual Property (IP) rights. In 2005, the Patent Reform in India changed the IP regulations from 7-years Process Patent, to match the Trade Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) compliant IP rights of 20-years Product Paten...
This case study will examine the moral issues of intellectual property rights and the effects they have on society. There are many varying stances on the subject of intellectual property, with people opposing either or both of intellectual property ownership and creative commons for various reasons. Mandatory copyrighting and patenting of inventions and published works has the potential to majorly restrict advancements in science and culture.
Solving the invention market failure is the less daunting problem of the two as existing intellectual property regulations, like patent law, already do this to a significant degree. However, the positive environmental externality market failure presents new difficulties for intellectual property law. Solving externality problems require internalizing the costs and benefits of externalities. Patent law must bring environmental innovators’ incentives to innovate in line with the actual societal or environmental value of their potential inventions. Placing private innovators’ incentives in accord with the social value of innovation will lead private innovators to engage in the socially or environmentally optimal level of
An opponent of our current patent law and system may make the argument that absent our intellectual property rights, innovations and discoveries would more closely exhibit the characteristics found in “pure public goods” such as national defense and education7. These examples are non-rival in consumption, there is enough to go around for everybody, and they are also non-excludable; no one is prevented from enjoying the good7. What these critics of our system fail to acknowledge is that an inventor could possibly bear the cost of making their discovery while everyone benefits on this free ride and prevents the original developer from ever recovering their initial investment of time and money. This flaw in the competitive system we would have absent IP law would potentially discourage some pioneers from their R&D. This would indicate that in some instances of innovation, the short-term monopoly provided by our patent law is a necessity to provide adequate incentive. The pharmaceutical industry is the poster child for this necessary protection provided by patents. In this sector, and to...
Patents have always represented a mutually beneficial a relationship between inventor and public. The inventor gets 17 years of basic monopoly on his invention so that he ...
In the scholarly book, “TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents and Access to Essential Medicines: Seattle, Doha and Beyond”, Hoen describes the need and uses of patents in the pharmaceutical industry. The World Trade Organization and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement help facilitate the ever growing industry. In order to protect intellectual property, these organizations set out patents to these companies. The article states that there are many drawbacks such as how patents increase the price of these drugs and limiting its consumers ability to acquire them. The source is outdated, as it was published in 2006, but it was helpful in understanding the way patents are incorporated in this industry. The insight from the pharmaceutical patents book allowed me to understanding the next book about the business aspect of the pharmaceutical industry. In the book, “Pricing, Profits, and Technological Progress in the Pharmaceutical Industry”, Scherer discusses the business of pharmaceuticals in the United States. The necessity of medicines throughout the world is a driving force of this sustaining industry. The U.S. health care costs in 2013 was 17.1% of the gross domestic product. The significance of this is that it is the second highest only to Tuvalu, which only has a population of 9,876. This high cost of pharmaceuticals leaves the people of the United States with an economic burden. Although being a country that is a world leader, the U.S. continues to struggle in the ability to provide sufficient medication to everyone in need of them. In the book, “International Pharmaceuticals,” Gary Banks delves into the factors of the international pharmaceutical industry. He discusses the roles of g...
Some restaurateurs invent new tools and gadgets in an effort to make existing processes more efficient. When this happens, it is important that they take the time to file a patent to secure the rights to their invention (Sanderson, 2013). A patent is form of intellectual property law used to protect an invention; regardless of use, patents last for 20 years (Newton,
“A patent is an intellectual property right granted by the Government of the United States of America to an inventor “to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States” for a limited time in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.” ("Patents," 2014) There are three types of patents, utility, design, and plant. Utility patents protect useful process, machines, article of manufacture, and composition of matter. Design patents pro...
To prevent others from using, making, importing or selling the invention without his permission, a patent is the right granted to the invention's owner. A invention would be patentable if it is a product or a process that provides a problem a new technical solution. It can also be the composition of a new product, a new method of doing things, or even a technical improvement on how certain objects work. A patent's term is 20 years from the date of filing and is subjected to the payment of annual renewal fees once it is granted.
Thus, it is clear that utility patents are much more valuable than design patents. In certain cases, though, where looks rather than functional features are just as important in the market place (furniture being one example), they provide another useful tool to protect products. We will discuss mostly utility patents, keeping in mind that similar rules regarding the process of obtaining and enforcing a patent apply to design and plant patents as well.
Because of its intangible nature, and particularly the increase of the digital domain and the internet as a whole, computers and cyber piracy make it easier for people to steal many forms of intellectual property. Due to this major threat, intellectual property rights owners’ should take every single measure to protect their rights. Unless these rights are either sold, exchanged, transferred, or appropriately licensed for use in exchange for a monetary fee, they should be protected at all cost. In order to protect these rights, the federal and states governments have passed numerous laws and statutes to protect intellectual property from misappropriation and infringement. “The source of federal copyright and patent law originates with the Copyright and Patent ...
Patent protection in Malaysia is governed by the Patents Act 1983, and is obtainable by either or filing a direct national application or entering the national phase of a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application. There are two patent classifications that an applicant can choose upon application, the standard patent or design patent and the utility patent.