The Current State of Computer Software Protection: A Survey and Bibliography of Copyright, TradeSecret and Patent Alternatives

Our society is becoming more computer-conscious by the minute. Whereas only a short time ago the computer was a monstrous, expensive curiosity used behind the closed doors of major corporations, today it is not uncommon for a family to own one or more

Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: Executive Guide

Prepared by and for policy-makers, leaders of public sector research establishments, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives, and scientists, this online resource offers up-to-date information and strategies for utilizing the power of both intellectual property and the public domain. Emphasis is placed on advancing innovation in health and agriculture, though many of the principles outlined here are broadly applicable across technology fields. Eschewing ideological debates and general proclamations, the authors always keep their eye on the practical side of IP management. The site is based on a comprehensive Handbook and Executive Guide that provide substantive discussions and analysis of the opportunities awaiting anyone in the field who wants to put intellectual property to work. This multi-volume work contains 153 chapters on a full range of IP topics and over 50 case studies, composed by over 200 authors from North, South, East, and West. If you are a policymaker, a senior administrator, a technology transfer manager, or a scientist, we invite you to use the companion site guide available at http://www.iphandbook.org/index.html The site guide distills the key points of each IP topic covered by the Handbook into simple language and places it in the context of evolving best practices specific to your professional role within the overall picture of IP management

Patent Law\u27s Unpredictability Doctrine and the Software Arts

Part II reviews these insights from the Norden model generally. Part III brings these insights to the disclosure doctrines for software patents, with particular emphasis on the unpredictability factor for undue experimentation within enablement. The model corresponds well with enablement and best mode but does not correspond as well with other disclosure-prompting doctrines whose role is related to defining the claim. Thus, the review in Part III of written description, definiteness, and means-plus-function (§ 112 T 6) claim limitations helps establish the contours of applicability for the Norden model. The discussion of Part III also reviews the current state of the law for software patent disclosure: disclosure burdens are light and do not require disclosure of source code for the software. Thus, software patents may represent the high-water technology in patent law for having your cake and eating it too: trade secrecy protection attaches if the licensing and distribution of the software is according to proprietary licensing: distribution of object code, keeping source code secret. Within this review of software patent disclosure law, the Article contrasts the continuum of possible disclosure modes with the Norden model and patent law\u27s current requirements. Part IV then completes the article by arguing for a change to one of the requirements: reducing the categorical approach to unpredictability in the software arts. All of software should not be deemed predictable. Many niches are, but some are not. Unpredictability is one of eight Wands factors that define undue experimentation,14 but it is particularly important among the factors. Technologically, Part IV explains potential sources for unpredictable or unreliable behavior in software systems. Pragmatically, the progression of software technology since the time of the precedent influencing enablement for software patents suggests a failure by the law to recognize the changes in the technology. Moreover, the disclosure doctrines in software patents have not responded to the expansion of patentable subject matter in the area of software patents. The discussion also helps show that patent law does not necessarily specify what it means by unpredictability, whether the unpredictable arts doctrine only attaches to ungovernable or inestimable items in nature or based on natural principles. Software is different as a discipline because it processes encoded information, where the encoding is derived from human thought. For some, this processing would not fit within a definition of what is nature. Regardless, the Norden model suggests that an effort-based perspective on disclosure brings notions of unpredictability into the software arts in a nuanced and niche-specific manner