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Research: Downsides of Using Inadequate Open Source Software Processes and Licenses within Standard Development
These slides were presented 2 March 2021 during a 4iP Council webinar with Michele Herman, CEO of Early Stage Health-Tech Startup and Founder of JusTech Law and Dr. Justus Baron, Senior Research Associate at the Center on Law, Business, and Economics, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. The presentation discussed the competition risks that may arise when SDOs integrate specification development with open source software development, and in particular, when SDOs develop and adopt their own open source reference implementation of the SDO’s standard.
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Categories: Standardisation, Licensing, Open Source Software
Research: Patentability of Computer Programs in Europe
by Yulia Borisova
The subject matter of this paper is focused on software inventions, which emerged in the practice of European Patent Office under the umbrella of “computer program having a technical character”. This concept is built without a proper definition of “computer program” and remains insufficiently researched. However, such patents are already granted. The main questions examined in the paper include the following: • What does Article 52 of the European Patent Convention understand under unpatentable “programs for computers as such”? • Are there any elements in a computer program that are not excluded by Article 52 and thus can qualify as inventions? • What is the role and the meaning of “further technical effect” that must be produced by a computer program in order to be patentable?
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Categories: Open Source Software, Artificial Intelligence and Data, Student Contribution
Research: A Guideline to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Intellectual Property
by Marta Duque Lizarralde
This guide has been developed to help businesses understand the basic tenets of artificial intelligence (AI), and the main steps necessary to ensure the protection of creations generated by AI.
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Categories: IP Enforcement, Open Source Software, Artificial Intelligence and Data, Business Models, Industry 4.0, Student Contribution
Research: How OSS licensing could coinhabit with standards development organisations’ existing IPR policies
by Axel Ferrazzini
Over the past few years, standards development organisations (SDOs) have been assessing how open source software (OSS) could be used to complement standardisation activities. Given that most SDOs have pre-existing intellectual property rights (IPR) policies based on fair reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) access to essential patents, a key challenge for SDOs has therefore been to determine how OSS licensing could coinhabit with SDOs’ existing IPR policies. This has led to considerable discussion and debate and some confusion. Given the diversity of views on the topic, this document is intended to provide some clarity on some critical aspects.
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Categories: Standardisation, Licensing, Open Source Software
Research: Standardisation, Open Source, and Innovation: Sketching the Effect of IPR Policies
by Martin Husovec. Assist. Professor, Tilburg University (Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society & Tilburg Law and Economics Center)
This summary report explores the following questions: “What are the differences between standards development organisations (SDOs)’ IPR policies and open source licenses in dealing with IPRs?” “What frictions may arise from such differences in their interactions?” “Whether the current IPRs framework of formal SDOs is adequate to embrace OSS?”. This summary is drawn from the following paper: Husovec, Martin, Standardization, Open Source, and Innovation: Sketching the Effect of IPR Policies (July 18, 2018). Forthcoming in Jorge Contreras (eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Technical Standardization Law (CUP 2019); TILEC Discussion Paper No. 2018-034. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3215769