CSEE&T 2006 Tutorial

Intellectual Property Law Basics
For Software Engineering Educators

 

David G. Kay

Department of Informatics
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
University of California
Irvine, CA  92697-3440
kay@uci.edu

 

Abstract: An introduction to the basics of intellectual property law (patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks) designed to give software engineering educators a framework for answering student questions, debunking misconceptions, and understanding how the law and computing interact.

 

Increasingly the practice of computing involves legal issues.  Patenting algorithms, domain name poaching, downloading MP3 files, and "re-using" HTML and graphics from web sites all raise questions in the domain of intellectual property law (which includes patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and trademarks).  In the classroom, computer science educators often confront questions that have legal ramifications.

To many computer scientists, the legal system seems arbitrary and impenetrable, just as software development is obscure to many lawyers.  But each discipline has its own axioms and goals, its own culture and approach to solving problems.  Moreover, each discipline has been largely successful in meeting its goals, despite such problems as frivolous, costly lawsuits on one side and unstable, bloated software on the other.

The goal of this seminar is to give software engineering faculty a framework for answering students' questions and debunking the most egregious misconceptions about intellectual property issues.  We will conclude with an opportunity for participants to share strategies for covering legal issues in the classroom.

Outline of topics

Sources of law: state and federal, legislation and court decisions, what it means to have a legal "cause of action."

The different cultures of computing and law: different time scales, different criteria for "elegant" solutions, different approaches to ambiguity.

The breadth of computer law: intellectual property, contracting, liability for malfunction, privacy, computer crime, transborder data flow, antitrust.

Categories of intellectual property law: patent, copyright, trade secret, trademark.

Comparing patents and copyrights: same constitutional mandate and underlying policy, different scope of protection and cost to obtain.

Patent requirements: "statutory subject matter," novelty, non-obviousness.  Problems with patents for software.

Copyright particulars: notice and registration, author's exclusive rights, actions that infringe, exceptions and defenses (fair use, public domain, external constraints).  Problems with copyrights for software.

Trade secrets: basis in confidentiality and promoting fair business dealings, actions necessary to maintain trade secrets.

Trademarks: obtaining protection, nature of infringements (particularly with domain names on the World-Wide Web).

Strategies for addressing computer law issues in the software engineering curriculum.

Presenter:  David G. Kay has taught computer law and computer science at UCLA and UC Irvine since 1981. He is a lawyer, having been admitted to the State Bar of California in 1977.  He has spoken on computer law for local chapters of the ACM and IEEE, UCLA Extension, the USC Computer Law Institute, the International Conference on Computers and Law, and the National Research Council of Italy.  He has written about teaching computer law for SIGCSE and the Forum for Advancing Software Engineering Education (FASE) and has presented similar  workshops and tutorials at SIGCSE and  at CSEE&T.