Intellectual Property, part 2: More detail for Copyright and Patent

Copyright

• Software is "fixed" from the moment it is stored
• A display is "fixed" even if it appears appears momentarily and may not return again.
• Duration of copyright depends on when it was granted, whether it was published, life of author, whether or not it was work-for-hire.

• work-for-hire -- the employer is the author when the work is within scope of employee or when work is specially ordered by employer as part of a larger work.
• private -- the individual or group of persons creating the work is the author of the work. The work is not being creating when the authors are acting as employees.
• A copyright is said to originate with the author

Rights granted

• Make copies
• Distribute copies
• Perform (music), to display (art, computer games, videos) in public
• Produce derivatives: e.g., StarWars books based on the StarWars movies
• Produce translations to other languages

Fair Use Doctrine - allows others limited access without consulting copyright owner

Four factors -- all are considered, weighting of factors depends on the particular case
• Purpose of use: non-profit (eg. most educational) versus for-profit
• Nature of the copyrighted work
• Amount or significance of portion of work used
• Extent of harm of the use

Significant Cases (per Baase)

• 1976 and 1980 copyright law extended to software and databases. Includes "Fair Use Doctrine"
• 1982 high-volume copying becomes felony
• 1992 multiple copies for commercial advantage and private gain becomes felony
• 1998 DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act): Cannot make, distribute or use tools to circumvent copyright protection technologies

Patent (largely per MSU talk by Wade)

• the invention is new to the patent records,
• useful,
• not obvious to a person in the discipline.

Patentable inventions: a process, a machine, (perhaps) an algorithm (but software is protected by copyright)

Patent protects against others making, using or selling the invention within the country (that grants the patent).

• Utility Patent: Explanation of how something works or is used
• Design Patent: Description of how something looks
  But notice that Look and feel lawsuits have largely involved copyright, not design patent

Rights granted

• Owner can exclude others from any use of the patented invention during the lifetime of the patent
• Typical university rules on patents: University owns property created by employees on university equipment, unpaid students own their own intellectual property.

Software patents

Patentability of software, or algorithms, or data structures remains unclear.

For a precis of the pros and cons of software patentability, see Wikipedia on Software Patent Debate