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Software Patents Must be Eliminated
Software patents threaten to devastate America's computer industry. Patents granted in the past decade are now being used to attack companies such as the Lotus Development Corporation for selling programs that they have independently developed. Soon new companies will often be barred from the software arena--most major programs will require licenses for dozens of patents, and this will make them infeasible. This problem has only one solution: software patents must be eliminated.
The Patent System and Computer Programs
The framers of the United States Constitution established the patent system so that inventors would have an incentive to share their inventions with the general public. In exchange for divulging an invention, the patent grants the inventor a 17 year monopoly on its use. The patent holder can license others to use the invention, but may also refuse to do so. Independent reinvention of the same technique by others does not give them the right to use it.
Patents do not cover specific systems: instead, they cover particular techniques that can be used to build systems, or particular features that systems can offer. Once a technique or feature is patented, it may not be used in a system without the permission of the patent-holder--even if it is implemented in a different way. Since a computer program typically uses many techniques and provides many features, it can infringe many patents at once.
Until recently, patents were not used in the software field. Software developers copyrighted individual programs or made them trade secrets. Copyright was traditionally understood to cover the implementation details of a particular program; it did not cover the features of the program, or the general methods used. And trade secrecy, by definition, could not prohibit any development work by someone who did not know the secret.
On this basis, software development was extremely profitable, and received considerable investment, without any prohibition on independent software development. But this scheme of things is no more. A change in U.S. government policy in the early 1980's stimulated a flood of applications. Now many have been approved, and the rate is accelerating.
Many programmers are unaware of the change and do not appreciate the magnitude of its effects. Today the lawsuits are just beginning.
Absurd Patents
The Patent Office and the courts have had a difficult time with computer software. The Patent Office refused until recently to hire Computer Science graduates as examiners, and in any case does not offer competitive salaries for the field.
(7) Hall B. Patents and Patent Policy -. 2007. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the Morse H. SETTLEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DISPUTES IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL AND MEDICAL DEVICE INDUSTRIES: ANTITRUST RULES. Allison JR, Lemley MA, Moore KA, Trunkey RD. Valuable patents. Geol.
The release of Halo 2 would have breached on their patent if Xavier and Trent had acquired a business process patent on their works. A business method patent or business process patent is essentially part of utility patents that protect processes, formulas as well as inventions. Technically, an idea cannot be patented. Nonetheless, Trent and Xavier could have protected an...
The Snurfer was good start, but never really gained traction as anything other than a small hill hobby. It wasn’t til Dimitrije Milovich entered the scene that people started seeing the potential of the snowboard. “Milovich was introduced to snowboarding in 1970 by Wayne Stoveken. Two years later, he dropped out of Cornell University, moved to Utah and started testing his prototype boards.” (MacArthur 1). It was Milovich’s sole desire. During the year of 1974 Dimitrije began making boards in his garage with a few of his close friends. By 1976 he founded the company Winterstick. Under this name Dimitrije ...
One snowy Christmas day in Muskegon, Michigan, a young girl by the name of Wendy Poppen tried to stand up on her sled while sliding down the hill. Seeing this, her father Sherman ran into the garage and bolted a pair of skies together with wood to ""act as foot stops"" (Crane). While watching Wendy use the contraption, some of the local kids ran up to Sherman and asked him to build one for each of them. Little did he know that he had given birth to the “fastest growing winter sport” (Prosl) known as snowboarding. The history, simplicity, and rate of growth of snowboarding took the sport from being completely banned from ski resorts, to being accepted worldwide with its Olympic debut in 1998.
Kirst-Ashman, K. (2011). Human behavior in the macro social environment. (3rd ed., pp. 303-355). Belmont, CA: Brookes/Cole.
Intellectual Property Law used to only protect art, music, and literature, but because of technological development, Intellectual Property Law now also protects a greater variety of innovations including designs, inventions, symbols, discoveries, and words. The phrase “intellectual property” was first known to be used in the late 1700’s; however, it was not widely talked about, nor was the Intellectual Property Law in actuality commonly implemented. Intellectual Property Rights slowly gained more attention by mid-1800’s after the Industrial Revolution had taken place: more companies were created, competition between corporations became fiercer, and owning unique innovations were crucial to winning the competition. However, as Intellectual Property
Brutus has gained the most power by agreeing to join the conspiracy to kill Caesar. By doing this, Brutus has most of the senators wanting him to have the most power. For example, Brutus and Cassius were arguing about whether Cicero would join the conspiracy. When Brutus says, “O name him not! Let us not break with him, / For he will never follow anything/ That other men begin” (A2, s1, line 156-158). After Brutus says this, all of the other men agree to what he has said. This shows that the senators respect and honor Brutus, thus giving him power. They think that Brutus is just as much of a king as Caesar is to the common people. Brutus has also always been seen as honorable and very valuable to the Roman society and to the common people. If Brutus did, in fact, join the conspiracy, the senators believe that the common people will forgive him. For example, when Brutus says, “I know no personal cause to spurn at him, /But for the general: he would be crowned” (A2, s1, line 11-12). This means Brutus has no reason to have anything against Caesar then the wellness of the people of Rome. Brutus is an elected official who wants more for the good of the people of Rome than committing a terrible crime. The people, senators, and everyone in Rome respect and think highly of Brutus. Brutus has the most power in Rome because he is the most honorable person, and he is for the common good. At this time, Brutus has
The standardized quality of MS Windows98 has really made the PC market as a whole take a rocket boost from the past. Most people who oppose this stance would say that standardizing a product wouldn’t cause anything but a monopoly. This is fiction because people choose products that are simply reliable and of good quality. The success of Microsoft’s operating system hasn’t been used to cause a monopoly in the browser marker, but to increase the quality of their software. A statement from Bill Gates on the 7th of December stating “ I am proud of the work our people have done to bring the benefits of the Internet to consumers, and I am confident that the courts ultimately will uphold the importance of the freedom to innovate.” The intensity of the Internet lies in it openness, freedom and incredible reach. It is physically impossible for any individual or company to be its controlling switch, as the number of Internet users continue to grow by easy access due to Internet technologies being added to quality operating systems such as Windows. Internet user will constantly demand high quality and maximum choice, and will travel to wherever they receive the best value for the money and time. As consumer interest in the Internet continues to grow, Microsoft’s role will be what it always has been. Aimed to provide the software building blocks for a rich computing experience and to build into that software all of the open Internet standards, protocols and platforms services which enable developers to write great applications. Even though Microsoft has included Internet capabilities in its Windows operating system since the launch of Windows 95, the Windows platform also provides excellent support for other leading browsers besides Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer.
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 ...
At the end of the day, the decision on if and how intellectual property (IP) protection is sought must be made in the context of an organizations IP strategy and keeping in line with the organization goals and objectives. For company who prefer to compete in the free market, copyrighted software is sufficient in protecting the legal rights of the software created. For company whose main objective is to collect licensing rights and back end deals that comes with patent protection, than it is advisable to seek for patent protection. For me, a copyright is more than sufficient to acknowledge an invention and the inventor’s rights to claim.
In the United States Constitution it states “The Congress shall have power ... to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries” (Garofalo 33).1
Intellectual property is the ownership of ideas as well as the control over the tangible or virtual representation of those ideas. Software is intellectual property, as are books, movies, and music.Like music performers and authors, software developers use copyright laws to protect their work and their investment in the field. The theft of intellectual property thus eliminates the resources used to develop newer and better products.
Patents claims focus of the mechanism, principles and components surrounding those ideas. Patents are the strongest of the law to protect the intellectual property. Patent law is based on a very strict liability standard, making a business owner’s strongest option for intellectual property protection. Patents often make use of reverse engineering. Through reverse engineering, they see if patented inventions are in used by another company. Patents have an expiration date; the design patent protect design, shape, configuration and appearance of any invention for 14 years, and utility patents that protect functional makeover and new invention last for 20
Software engineering encompasses various principles from both the computer science field and the computer engineering field to develop practical uses of software within hardware we use on a daily basis. With the passage of time, technology dependent on software has become increasingly prevalent. As a result, there will be a high demand for software engineers to sustain the eventual abundance of new and more complex computers.
Software engineering is important in today’s society because we use the products of software engineering almost daily. We use the products of software engineering in objects as simple as our car keys to objects as complicated as supercomputers. The past, present, and future of software engineering is quite interesting. This paper will provide information about this field of study and why software engineering is going to be around a while.