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Vinson Kurian

Thiruvananthapuram , Nov 14

AN array of inherent contradictions appears to handicap the concept of software patents, not least among them the typical 20-year `legitimacy' provision, which is just too long for software development cycles.

Presenting a paper on `Software intellectual property rights' to an invited audience hosted by the Indian Institution of Engineers (India), Kerala State Centre, at the Institution of Engineers Hall here, Mr Amarnath Raja, CEO of Technopark-based InApp Technologies, said the Patents Office did not either have a means of differentiating "new ideas" from "the obvious" in software. For another, interpreting the legal language of patents was a very difficult proposition.

Software patent is a means of protecting one's `idea'. Since an idea (unlike a creation) is not a physical entity, it has to be registered. The registration of such an idea is called a "Patent". Governing rules and terms of use pertaining to software patents are common with other kinds of products - software does not have anything special.

But, software patents have earned a bad name since they tend to curtail development and progress of software.

Sample of software patents: One-click buy, Natural order recalculation in spreadsheets, Hypercard programme {lcub}scrolling through a database displaying selected part of each line of text), Window redisplay (backing store), Spellcheck on spacebar (auto Spellcheck), public/private key encryption and preview pre-recorded music.

In India, the list of non-patentable ideas is supposed to include "a mathematical or business method or a computer program per se or algorithms." Copying is referred to mean publishing/selling/distributing the work of any other person or any derived work. The author of any work may specify how, if at all, the work may be used. These are called licenses of use. `CopyLeft' is the name given to one form of license - the GNU Public License. There are many other popular licenses. One may release one's software under any of these popular licenses or write one's own license.

Some licenses in the `free world' are GPL-the free and CopyLeft license, LGPL- the `Lesser' GPL, that facilitates linking with libraries, the X11 License - free to use subject to X11 license terms, the W3C License - free, but which covers documentation on changes made, and the Berkeley Database License, that provides access to source code.

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