Protecting Intellectual Property Rights In Software - Essay Example

?PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN SOFTWARE Table of Contents Copyright 3 Patients 5 Trademark 6 Conclusion 7 References 8 9 Introduction Intellectual property right is not a new term for the current developing software industry. The term covers a variety of intangible rights of possession in a technology based asset like that software program. Every intellectual property "right" is itself a personal or corporate asset, a piece of the general possession pie. In addition, the rules which come under ‘intellectual property right’ offer various techniques for saving these rights of possession depending on their category. However, there are fundamentally 4 kinds of intellectual property rights which are applied to software, copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets. Additionally, each type offers a specific legal defense. For instance, copyrights, patents and trade secrets are utilized to protect the technology itself. Moreover, trademarks do not protect technology; however they are used to protect symbols or names used to differentiate a product in the market (Freibrun, 2011; ZINNOV LLC, 2001; Locklizard, 2011). This paper outlines some of the important ways to protect intellectual property in software industry. This paper will discuss intellectual property rights which are used for software such as copyright, patent and trademark. Copyright Software copyright is a rule or regulation that affects anybody who makes use of a computer, and especially the companies; it is not rare for a company to face civil or yet illegal proceedings for software copyright violation. On the other hand, it is a difficult part of law that is not extensively recognized (Kerr, 2007; InnovAccess, 2009. In addition, software copyright is not fundamentally dissimilar from some other kinds of copyright. Though, there are specific scenario of copyright law that is explicit to software, for the reason that there are realistic dissimilarities among software as well as other aspects that can be copyrighted (poems, books, sculptures, drawings, etc.). Additionally, the copyright law offers a programmer (or in the scenario of a working programmer, that programmer's company) an extensive degree of power over the system/application/program that he or she develops. For instance, the proprietor of copyright in a part of computer software that has the right to stop others from making copies of the software, or some considerable fraction of the software, whether the copy right infringer creates the copy by pasting application on hard disk, floppy disk, CD ROM, or by printing out a hard copy of the code of the software (Kerr, 2007; InnovAccess, 2009). When somebody develops a unique piece of application/code/software, that individual then apply something known as copyright to that application. In addition, applying the copyright to application or software outlines that owner of that particular application has the security of the law thus nobody can attempt to take their software. Additionally, under copyright law, people are not allowed to: (Copley, 2011) Make a copy the application or software intended for other people Loan the software to some other individuals Offer the software on rent to other people Making an illegal installation of application on a network when other people are able to make use of its or access it Moreover, if somebody does not comply with the law or regulation of copyright, they could be penalized with fines or even through imprisonment. The cause for this is that making software engages work of a lot of people and might take thousands of hours. It is simply fair that all this effort is protected (Copley, 2011). In this scenario, the US Copyright Office recognizes the software to be “a group of declarations or commands to be employed openly or not directly in a system to carry about a specific output.” However, copyright security is not implemented to thoughts, ideas, program logic, algorithms, techniques or layouts (ClickandCopyright, 2011). In addition, in software copyrights scenario the rights are owned by the programmer who writes the code. However, in case there is more than one programmer, the Directive offers for co-ownership (InnovAccess, 2009). Patients Inventors are able to implement to their government for the authority to possess the thoughts in their developments. This kind of intellectual property right is recognized as a patent. In addition, in absence of patent right, anybody else could copy their discovery. Thus, patent ensures that the inventor takes pleasure in an era all through that they possess the idea at the back their invention, and are able to stop others from imitating it. Moreover, they are able to as well permit others to employ their thoughts for a fee or at no cost (Wilson, 2011). At the present, modern society depends heavily on computer technology. In fact, in absence of software applications, a computer is not able work. In addition, software and hardware work collectively in today’s information technology based society. Thus, there is essentially no doubt that security of software is vital not simply for the software business, however for other industries also (Miyamoto, 2011). Furthermore, the patents expand safety to somebody who finds out a procedure that does something, like that a procedure for production of aspirin. For the period of the patent safety, no one is permitted to utilize that technique except they have been granted permission by the patent holder. Following that, the patent turns out to be public knowledge as well as anyone is able to utilize it without punishment. In addition, it is an inadequate control over a procedure decided by the administration for the benefit of both furthering development by offering people financial encouragements to perform research (by permitting them to take advantage from that research), and for the betterment of the society by making sure the information formulates it back into the public area (the entire patent filings are completely public) (Bowers, 2006; Tutorial-Reports, 2007; graham, 2011). Trademark A trademark is a phrase, word or symbol or design, or a collection of all these, that denotes and differentiates the source of the products and services of one party from others. Trademark is applied virtually to a name utilized in combination with products or services. Still though there are a lot of exceptions, the majority probable they will not hinder by obtaining a trademark for our work. An additional constituent to obtaining a trademark is that the marks have to be employed in commerce. In addition, being employed in business industry fundamentally outlines that the products or services connected with the mark have to be employed in more than one condition. For instance, if a developer desires to put up for sale a program he or she has developed, most probably it will be put up for or employed in one other condition, and not immediately the condition where the program was initially sold. Yet, if the application should simply be employed in one condition, the system developer could still obtain trademark security offered by the individual state (Sniderman, 2011; Lakeside Software, Inc., 2011; PTC, 2011). Conclusion Intellectual property right is not a new term for the current developing software industry. The term covers a variety of intangible rights of possession in a technology based asset like that software program. Every intellectual property "right" is itself a personal or corporate asset, a piece of the general possession pie. This paper has discussed intellectual property rights which are used for software such as copyright, patent and trademark. Software copyright is a rule or regulation that affects anybody who makes use of a computer, and especially the companies; it is not rare for a company to face civil or yet illegal proceedings for software copyright violation. On the other hand, it is a difficult part of law that is not extensively recognized. Inventors are able to implement to their government for the authority to possess the thoughts in their developments. This kind of intellectual property right is recognized as a patent. A trademark is a phrase, word or symbol or design, or a collection of all these, that denotes and differentiates the source of the products and services of one party from others. Trademark is applied virtually to a name utilized in combination with products or services. References Bowers, J., 2006. Software and Software Patents. [Online] Available at: http://www.jerf.org/writings/communicationEthics/node6.html [Accessed 26 October 2011]. ClickandCopyright, 2011. The advantage of a software copyright. [Online] Available at: http://www.clickandcopyright.com/copyright-software.aspx [Accessed 25 October 2011]. Copley, S., 2011. What is Software Copyright? [Online] Available at: http://www.igcseict.info/theory/6/copy/ [Accessed 26 October 2011]. Freibrun, E.S., 2011. Intellectual Property Rights in Software: What They Are and How the Law Protects Them. [Online] Available at: http://www.freibrun.com/articles/articl2.htm [Accessed 25 October 2011]. graham, P., 2011. Are Software Patents Evil. [Online] Available at: http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html [Accessed 22 October 2011]. InnovAccess, 2009. Specific rules. [Online] Available at: http://www.innovaccess.eu/documents/softwareCopyright_0000001105_00.xml.html [Accessed 26 October 2011]. Kerr, P.B., 2007. COMPUTER SOFTWARE LAW IN CANADA. [Online] Available at: http://users.trytel.com/~pbkerr/computer.html [Accessed 25 October 2011]. Lakeside Software, Inc., 2011. TRADEMARK USAGE. [Online] Available at: http://www.lakesidesoftware.com/trademarkusage.aspx [Accessed 23 October 2011]. Locklizard, 2011. Intellectual Property Rights. [Online] Available at: http://www.locklizard.com/intellectual-property-rights.htm [Accessed 25 October 2011]. Miyamoto, T., 2011. Patenting Software. [Online] Available at: http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/documents/software_patents.htm [Accessed 27 October 2011]. PTC, 2011. Trademark. [Online] Available at: http://www.ptc.com/company/policies/trademark.htm [Accessed 22 October 2011]. Sniderman, B., 2011. Trademarks and Software. [Online] Available at: http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.12/12.10/TrademarkIssues/index.html [Accessed 24 October 2011]. Tutorial-Reports, 2007. What are software patents? [Online] Available at: http://www.tutorial-reports.com/innovation/patent/whatis.php [Accessed 25 October 2011]. Wilson, R., 2011. Software Patents. [Online] Available at: http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/softwarepatents.xml [Accessed 24 October 2011]. ZINNOV LLC, 2001. Intellectual Property rights protection in India: An analysis. [Online] Available at: http://www.softwareceo.com/downloads/file/sceo/white_papers/IP_Research.pdf [Accessed 25 October 2011]. Read More