Software Patents Panel

Over 6000 patents were issued last year in the US for software related inventions. Patent protection is available for software developments in Australia, US and Europe in addition to copyright protection. However, little use of the system has been made in Australia. We review the different types of intellectual property systems, and the use of the patent system in Australia in relation to protection of software-related inventions. Our panelists will discuss the meaning of the patent system, rights obtained, applicability to software, myths, and the process of applying for a patent in Australia. 1. Patents and other Intellectual Property systems Different types of intellectual property systems have developed throughout the years to protect the product of human’s intellect and to promote the innovation of ideas. The most common systems for protecting computer software are: copyright, patents, and trade marks. We briefly describe each one. Copyright protects the expression of an idea in a tangible (material) form. The recent Copyright Treaty by the World Intellectual Property Organization [13] confirms that computer software is to be protected by copyright as a literary work throughout the world. Literary works, such as books and poems, have traditionally been expressed in a written form which is readable to humans. Computer software source code is clearly an expression of ideas in a written form. And by extension, object code is an expression of the same ideas in machine language, hence it is also considered a literary work and therefore attracts copyright protection. Patents protect the underlying ideas of a product which has commercial value in industry. Computer software incorporates ideas in the form of algorithms and data structures. These ideas can be protected by patents if proven to be innovative enough and of commercial value. Trade marks protect the name that uniquely distinguishes a company or product from the rest. Trade marks are available in regards to computer software in software names and software company names.