Patenting Computer Software

In terms of intellectual property and how to protect the owner and his/her rights, computer software makes us think twice whether it should be patented or copyrighted. Is computer software a writing of an idea in the form of written symbols and words or is computer software an invention in the sense of an application? Actually, it seems to be both and regardless, computer software falls under legal protection from infringement.

The battle of what intellectual property software actually is has been going on for many years. The initial attempt by software companies to patent their products failed because a program’s function can be reduced to a “simple” mathematical code, which is not patentable under patent law. In 1981, however, the United States Patent and Trademark Office began issuing patents for software-based inventions.

When consumers buy a certain software package today, they are not the owner of that software, even though they paid a considerable amount of money for it. Studying the printed clauses on the envelope reveals that only a license to use the software was purchases and the consumer has no right to reproduce or sell the product for further economical gain. In case the consumer violates the license the right to use the product is terminated without a refund for the original purchase.

Factors to consider:

• Program function
• External design
• User interfaces
• Program code

Protecting intellectual property is sought by others as much as material goods of any value. Even though there are safeguards to protect intellectual property,such as software it has become evident that sofware is reproduced much more frequently than any other kind of intellectual property.