Upload
marcus-dapp
View
747
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Citation preview
Digital Sustainabilityin the Knowledge Society
Fundamentals of Patent Law
Dr. Marcus M. DappBoard OKF Germany / IT Strategist, City Government Munich
17.10.2011
Patents
Basic concept of patents
• Protect “technical inventions”• ideas/concepts, not specific forms
• Exclusive right to prevent others from• making, using, selling, importing
• Application fee• Describe invention (disclosure)
• List of claims determine scope• Checked by patent examiner
IdeaConcept
FormExpression
Patent claims determine scope of patent
Preconditions for Patentability
• Patentable subject matter• Eligible for patent protection
• 3step test• Novel (»prior art«, »Stand der Technik«)• Nonobvious (US) / inventive step (EU)• Useful (US) / industrial application (EU)
(WP: Patentability)
Patent scope
• Time• Duration of exclusive rights protection
• “Space”• Breadth (horizontal)?• Depth (followup innovations)?
Show Black Duck patent ...
Patents and cumulative innovation
• Cumulatie innovations• Innovations resulting from previous
innovations, e.g., IT and biotech
• Dependencies between innovations• Use and reproduce previous innovations
• Optimal strategy?• »deep« patents cover
following innovations
Patent examination
• A lot of rules• A lot of applications• Leading to
• Big backlog • Little examination time (2h/appl.)
Rules, rules, rules
• 30 MB PDF• 23 MB HTML• (text only!)
Applications,applications,applications
• 1 M• USPTO• EPO
Comparing copyright and patents
Same, same, but different …
Copyright & Patents – Commonalities
• Exclusive (monopoly) rights• (Main) rationale: Monetary incentive• Stategranted• Timelimited
=
Copyright & Patents – Differences I
• Protects expression
• Original works• Automatic• Gratis• Boundaries clear• Exceptions
• Protects expression
• Original works• Automatic• Gratis• Boundaries clear• Exceptions
• Protects idea• “3step” inventions
• Submit application• Application fee• Boundaries fuzzy
• »Claims«
• Disclosure(!)
• Protects idea• “3step” inventions
• Submit application• Application fee• Boundaries fuzzy
• »Claims«
• Disclosure(!)
Copyright & Patents – Differences II
• Difficult to infringe• indep. creation• »piracy« easy to
detect
• Little limitation for other creators
• small piece of creative space
• Difficult to infringe• indep. creation• »piracy« easy to
detect
• Little limitation for other creators
• small piece of creative space
• Easy to infringe• indep. invention• high monitoring
costs• Considerable limits
to others
• Strategic patenting• Block competition• patent races
• Easy to infringe• indep. invention• high monitoring
costs• Considerable limits
to others
• Strategic patenting• Block competition• patent races
In general, patents show higher transaction costs than copyright.
Term “intellectual property”
• Is notion of “property” adequate?• Different types function differently
• copyright ≠ patents ≠ trade marks
• Make clear what you are talking about!
How should software be protected?
• Which system makes more sense to protect software? Why?
• Pro /Con for copyright?• Pro / Con for patents?• Pro / Con for other solution(s)? • Pro / Con for no protection?
• 5’ interaction with neighbours• Share in plenary
3-5-1 interaction
Next session: How software is actually protected ...