No IT or IP laywer should be without a copy of this book
Previously entitled Software Copyright Law, the fifth edition of the Legal Protection of Computer Software offers up-to-date coverage and critical analysis of intellectual property laws applicable to all forms of computer software. Covering copyright, database rights, patents, trade marks, design rights and the law of confidence, this practical book will provide you with a comprehensive explanation of the protection of computer software:
- By intellectual property laws in the UK
- Under European Directives
- At the European Patent Office
New legislation – New Case Law – New advice
This new fifth edition has been fully updated to take account of significant legislative developments and relevant case law, including:
- Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 made significant changes to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
- Change to the European Patent Convention on the meaning of invention (December 2007) impacts on software inventions
- BHB v William Hill
(ECJ 2004)
- Football Fixtures trio of cases (ECJ 2004)
- Attheraces v BHB (CA 2007)
- Nova v Mazooma (CA 2007)
- Microsoft v Commission (CFI 2007)
- Aerotel v Telco (CA 2006)
- MGM v Grokster (US S Ct 2005)
- Hitachi/auction method (EPO 2004)
- Microsoft clipboard formats (EPO 2006)
Why you need this book
Written by a respected lawyer and IT professional, this book will help you to:
- Identify appropriate forms of IP protection for computer software
- Show the scope and applicability of such protection
- Critique legal protection for computer software
- Understand complex and difficult areas and disparities between patent law relating to software inventions in the UK and before the EPO
- Explain why emulating software may be legal in appropriate circumstances
- Provide guidance on the scope and practicalities of legal protection of software.
Reviews:
This book sets out in a relatively succinct fashion the principle [sic] sources of legal protection of computer software, that is copyright, database right, patents and confidential information. The book should be of interest to students, lawyers and those active in the computer industry who are seeking a readable and rather comprehensive introduction to this subject.
Computer software is a pervasive phenomenon and of enormous economic importance, as the author makes clear in his introduction:
"Computer software now covers such a wide range of subject-matter which includes computer programs, databases, other works of copyright such as text-based and audio-visual works, online entertainment and computer games. Indeed, it is not too great an overstatement to claim that everything now is software or is capable of conversion into software”.
This development is, however, relatively recent, dating perhaps from the mid 1970s, and has caused certain problems with trying to fit software within the traditional categories of intellectual property:
“Reasons for the difficulty in identifying a single appropriate form of intellectual property right for computer programs are that:
Computer programs are unlike other forms of copyright work in that they are dynamic rather than static as is generally the case with copyright works. Computer programs do things, they manipulate symbols and data and cause or control effects including physical effects....
David Rodgers
EIPR Issue 9 [2008]
