Legal Protection Of Computer Programs In Europe

This book combines an authoritative interpretation of the EC Council Directive on the legal protection of software adopted in May 1991, with a practitioner's view on how to deal with the issues it raises for industry and the legal profession. Legal Protection of Computer Programmes in Europe provides a valuable comparison of the Directive to the corresponding laws of the US, Japan and Eastern Europe and should prove of great use to all those who are legal advisers to software developers and distributors, as well as to those in the software industry itself involved in the drafting of licences.

The first few years of the 90s have been extremely important for the development of software copyright both in the United States and Europe. In the United States, major decisions redefined the idea/expression dichotomy in different cases. In Europe, countries are still in the process of harmonizing their national laws with the EC Software Directive. The study compares traditional and evolving copyright standards as applied to computer programs on both sides of the Atlantic. It may well be said that recent case law has brought America closer to Europe. On the other hand, American experience turns out to be a useful guideline for distinguishing between the concepts of idea and expression in the sense of the software directive.

The success of computer programs often depends on their ability to interoperate ' or communicate ' with other systems. In proprietary software development, however, the need to protect access to source code, including the interface information

EU Copyright Law Subsistence, Exploitation and Protection of Rights Morten Rosenmeier, Kacper Szkalej and Sanna Wolk Against a background in which technology continues to change the ways we create, use, distribute and consume cultural content – and where there has been a noticeable increase in the body of case law of Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) relating to copyright – copyright protection has become an essential component of the knowledge-based economy and the information society. This book, structured around the various rights and issues rather than the legislative instruments, greatly facilitates an understanding of the complex legal area of European Union (EU) copyright law and provides for a more conscious application of these rules. Among the issues and topics covered are the following: the CJEU’s interpretation of EU copyright law and application of fundamental rights; authorship and ownership of copyright; protection of computer programs and databases; scope of exclusive rights, such as communication to the public and distribution, including rental and lending; application of limitations and exceptions; cross-border access to online content services; digital exhaustion of copyright; and enforcement of copyright and cross-border issues; With its practical approach to the substance of the various legal rules and principles both at EU level and in the various EU Member States, the book clearly describes in detail how copyright law functions throughout the EU. Professionals, business entities and academics who must be familiar with this dynamic legal area, especially in the digital environment, will benefit greatly from the book’s clear consideration of legal questions that arise in connection with copyright issues.

As a result of the incorporation of computer software into countless commercial and industrial products, the patentability of software has become a vital issue in intellectual property law. This indispensable book provides an overview on the current status of computer-implemented inventions in patent law across Europe and major jurisdictions worldwide. A hugely practical field research tool with guidance based on case law, it examines the major hurdles in each particular country and describes the best practice to be adopted. Clearly showing how enforceable software patent applications can be competitively drafted and how a patent portfolio for computer-implemented inventions can be established in several countries without spending money unnecessarily on problematic examination proceedings, this book covers such issues and topics as the following: • claim categories for patent applications; • sufficient level of abstraction/breadth of the claimed invention; • fundamental terms of computing and terminological traps; • probability for patents dependent on software application areas; and • patents in core areas of computing. With separate chapters for the key countries, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the United States, China, Korea, Japan, India, and the European Patent Office the legal situation for computer-implemented inventions in each country or region, this book includes guidance on prosecution under national law, analyses of relevant court decisions, practice checklists, and an outlook on future developments.. The authors describe claim formulation based on actual cases and on principles of computer science in order to show what might be or might not be patentable in each jurisdiction. With this incomparable resource, patent attorneys and patent professionals in companies will get a basis for making decisions about the most appropriate jurisdictions in which to file patent applications. This book will also be of great value to computer professionals who are affected by the protection of software or who are actively involved in the protection of software by patent law.