IIR Conference on Intellectual Property Protection in South Africa

August 12, 2009
Intellectual Property News and Interesting Facts

We will be contributing at the upcoming IIR conference on Intellectual Property Protection in Johannesburg.

Outline

What do patents traditionally protect and how are inventions defined by law.

How software patents aim to protect pieces of software that may or may not legally be considered  inventions.

What constitutes a software invention, and hence a patentable software invention, as dictated by territorial
substantive laws (RSA; USA; EU; Japan) that draw from tangible, physical inventions; and
case law (rulings of the US Courts; US Patent and Trade Mark Office; European Patent Office).

How copyright protects content as input to software programs and program code, but not software functionality, regardless of inventiveness.

Software encapsulates more than an invention or program code: software may embody:
-    an invention (US: “transformation of articles” and “concrete hardware realization”; EU: “technical effect” and “Computer Implemented Inventions”);
-    functionality contained in intangible, compiled code;
-    software design;
-    content;
-    frameworks for hosting content, e.g. database structures;
-    algorithms and communication protocols.

Challenge: How to protect software as a whole?

A Framework which considers:
-    Software patents (and possible interpretation by RSA courts);
-    Open source licensing strategies – BSD vs. GPL; “clean-room” approaches;
-    Royalty-free patent licenses;
-    Proprietary approaches;
-    Content protection mechanisms, e.g. Digital Rights Management;
-    Directives on patentability of computer-implemented inventions.