Patents, copyrights and licensesNet@Law - 6 May 2009

Patents vs copyrights

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What’s the difference?

Patents Protection of processes and ideas

Protection of implementations and codeCopyrights

Rights-granting agreements between owners and usersLicenses

Patents vs copyrights

2

Patents Protection of processes and ideas

Protection of implementations and codeCopyrights

Rights-granting agreements between owners and usersLicenses

Example: your MP3 player

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Patents

Protection of processes and ideas

MP3 compression/decompression algorithms owned by Thompson and others

Protection of implementations and code

Copyrights Software rights for specific applications owned by VideoLAN (VLC), Apple (iTunes), Microsoft (Windows Media Player), etc.

Rights-granting agreements between owners and users

Licenses VideoLAN gets license for the MP3 codec patent from Thompson and licenses its copyrighted VLC software to YOU!

History of sofware patents

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Software patent law is national

Software patent law is in a fluid state

Software patent law has been affected by the rise of the Internet

1790 USPTO created, first patent issued

1972 US Supreme Court rules on Gottschalk v. Benson

2005 India rejects principle of software patentability

1962 First software patent issued for simplex algorithm

1996 USPTO publishes FCREG establishing patentability

Should software be patentable?

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Pros:

Software is useful and requires effort to develop, just like any other invention

Programmers need to eat too

Cons:

It severely hampers software development

Mathematical facts cannot be patentable

Broad and stupid patents can be granted as software is more flexible

Countries disagree on the patentability of software

Patenting for dummies

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Step 1

Write a document describing invention

Step 2

Send it to patent offices of the countries in which you want a patent

E.g. https://sportal.uspto.gov/secure/portal/efs-unregistered

Step 3

Wait for it to get approved, and pay the necessary fees - approximately $10,000

Patents: an example

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Criticism

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VIDEO

Copyrights and licenses

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All software is subject to copyright

Copyrights prohibit the duplication and distribution of any substantial portion of the code without the consent of the copyright owner

Licenses grant particular rights regarding the software and the code to the end user

The ubiquitous EULA (End User License Agreement) is an example of such licensing

Licenses differ in their restrictiveness - open source vs proprietary software

Copyright is easy, licenses are complex

READ YOUR LICENSES!

Software licenses in practice

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Software licenses in practice

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Software licenses in practice

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Software licenses in practice

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The different licenses

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GPL

More than 60% of free software uses GPL.

Created to ensure that source code is provided together with binaries.

GPL code can only be used in other GPL software.

LGPL

Designed for software libraries rather than software.

Proprietary software can use LGPL libraries. Software using LGPL code must be LGPL or GPL.

Used in Mozilla & OpenOffice

MIT License

Very permissive license.

Gives users the right to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell the software

Users must include copy of license with their code

RESTRICTIVE PERMISSIVE

Key takeaway

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1 Patents are on ideasCopyright is on code and implementation

2 Patents are controversialCopyright is widely accepted

Key takeaway

12

1 Patents are on ideasCopyright is on code and implementation

Remember: even though all software is copyrighted, the number of restrictions imposed varies greatly from license to license

2 Patents are controversialCopyright is widely accepted

Franck DernoncourtAndrei Timoshenko

Patents, copyrights and licensesNet@Law - 6 May 2009