Search

We discuss the software patent should be granted or not. There exist two types of coping in the software market; reverse engineering and software duplication. Software patent can prevent both types of copies since a patent protects an invention. If the software is not protected by a patent, software producer cannot prevent reverse engineering. However, the producer can prevent the software duplication by a copyright. It is not clear the software patent is socially desirable when we consider these two types of coping. We obtain the following results. First, the number of copy users under the patent protection is greater than that under the copyright protection. Second, the government can increase social welfare by applying copyright protection when the new technology is sufficiently innovative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines diversified knowledge and how it affects the impact of technological innovation. Specifically, we examine the effect of diversified technology knowledge-measured by technologies that underlie patents, and the effect of diversified country knowledge-measured by collaboration with inventors from other countries. Using Generalized Linear Latent and Mixed Modeling, we analyze 97,118 patents in the computers and communications industry and in the drugs and biotechnology industry, which were applied for and granted in the US to inventors from 13 countries over a period of 5 years. Controlling for economic and cultural variables, we find that diversified technology knowledge and diversified country knowledge are both positively associated with the impact of technological innovation. These findings provide new insights for firm managers, industry leaders, and policy makers regarding effective actions designed to increase the impact of technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These reminiscences relate to the period that Brian Randell spent between 1964 and 1966 first at IBM Research working on Project Y and then in the IBM Systems Development Division on the resulting ACS Project--then-secret projects that aimed to build a supercomputer that would be 100 times faster than Stretch. Randell's account is based in part on his memory, but also makes extensive use of the small set of files that he had retained, mainly relating to patent applications. A scanned copy of one of these files, the paper "Dynamic Instruction Scheduling," that he coauthored with Lynn Conway, Don Rozenberg, and Don Senzig in February 1966, is available as an online Web extra https://s3.amazonaws.com/ieeecs.cdn.csdl.public/mags/an/2015/03/man2015030055s.pdf and in Newcastle University's online archive at www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/publications/trs/papers/891.pdf. Because of space constraints just the initial three pages of this paper are included in the present article, which also includes the text from a section on "Interrupts" that was added to the 1969 IBM San Jose Technical Report version of the 1966 paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Prolific, yet neglected inventor Andrew Vasily Haeff (1905-1990) made numerous contributions to vacuum tube art, including the traveling wave tube, the inductive-output tube, the electron-wave tube (or "double-stream" amplifier), the resistive wall tube, and many others. Haeff's contributions to computing history include his pioneering computer monitor technology, his high-speed electrostatic computer memory tube, and his early work in the display and storage of text and graphics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hiring away inventors has long been recognized as a way of learning used by innovative firms. This paper claims that the characteristics of the knowledge accumulated by an inventor at his current employer affect what hiring firms can learn from him. The implication is that some inventors are more likely to be hired away than their coworkers. We analyze the relationship between the type of knowledge embodied by inventors working at IBM and their probability of moving. Relying on patent data to track the movement of inventors across firms and to characterize the kind of know-how they hold, we identify the following drivers of inventor mobility: the quality of their work; the complementarity of their knowledge with that of other inventors; and, to a lower extent, their expertise in the firm's core areas in which the firm is not a dominant player. Results confirm the role of knowledge characteristics behind the mobility of research and development personnel and suggest that learning is a relevant force in the market for inventors. Key words: mobility; learning-by-hiring; technology transfer; inventors History: Received August 25, 2008; accepted September 18, 2009, by Scott Shane, entrepreneurship. Published online in Articles in Advance March 15, 2010., 1. Introduction Leading organizations in high-tech industries are often the source of a great deal of innovative ideas. Apart from directly launching their own innovations, they are also at the [...]

The article looks at the entire market value rule which allows for recovery of patent infringement damages based on the value of an entire product or device that contains an infringing component. The article states that the patent system should adapt to accommodate the areas of rapid development, including the computing and biotechnology industries, in which products are consist of numerous components and which may be patented invention. The application of the entire market value rule overcompensates patentees and exacerbates the problems in the current system for awarding patent infringement damages.

Software patents have been making the headlines recently. In the EU, after the European Parliament has rejected a controversial proposed 'Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions' in July 2005, the debate is far- from over: The Commission continues to pursue policies expanding tile reach of intellectual property fights, while the controversies have exposed issues that call for a more cautious approach, demanding justification for further extension of IP - difficult to provide in general, and probably impossible with respect to computer software, as the evolution of information technology reveals fundamental incompatibilities with the patent system: Thorough analysis of the historical development of IP as well as that of computers and their programs, both as a science and with its economic implications as an industry, combined with the international comparison of experiences with (and alternatives to) patents covering software, provide convincing reasons to keep patent law within its established confines supported by the European Patent Convention, separating patentable subject matter from unpatentable mental acts, business methods and mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a general view of the scientific and technological production in the ICT sector of the industry in Spain during the period 1996–2000 and its relative weight in the national production, through bibliometric techniques, with the aim of exploring the character of its outputs, both in terms of publications and patents, focusing the attention on the position and contribution of Spanish ICT scientific and technological capabilities. Indicators at macro–meso level are presented by: geographic region, thematic areas and enterprises. Results about scientific activity in companies show a very short commitment to R+D, low number of patents, scarce participation in international publications, as well as insufficient interaction between public and private sectors. Scientific production comes basically from public sector (Universities and CSIC), while the technological activity is located in very few enterprises which patent mainly in the Spanish office. A closer look into Spanish regions reflects a high concentration in Madrid and Catalonia in publications; nevertheless, Navarra and Basque Country stand out in patents. Results reflect that Industry is not taking advantage of the public sector research efforts for its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the relationship between technology resources, alliance formation, and sustained growth in new technology-based firms. We employ a three-dimensional measure of technology resources that includes the development and commercialization of technologies, and represents both a firm's initial resource foundation and its early actions to build on this foundation. Our analysis of 67 computer and telecommunications finns reveals that innovative first products are not associated with sustained growth, while patenting and product development activities are. This indicates that new firms cannot rely on their initial innovations for longer term advantage, but need to undertake follow up actions to build their technology resource foundations. In addition, while all three of the technology resource variables are positively associated with alliance formation, alliances, in turn, are weakly and negatively associated with sustained growth. The advantage of forming alliances has long been extolled, and it was assumed these benefits extended to new finns and those in technology-intensive environments. These findings suggest, however, that building, rather than accessing, technology resources is more critical to long-term growth for these finns. Our research provides convincing evidence that new firms should not be complacent about their initial success derived from innovative beginnings. They must turn their attention, early on, to building their technology resources internally, while exercising caution with respect to alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article is the first part of a wide study of the role of intellectual property in the software industry. Unlike previous papers that focus primarily on software patents--which generally are held by firms that are not software firms--this Article provides a thorough and contextually grounded description of the role that patents play in the software industry itself. The bulk of the Article considers the pros and cons of patents in the software industry. The Article starts by emphasizing the difficulties that prerevenue startups face in obtaining any value from patents. Litigation to enforce patents is impractical for those firms. Efforts to obtain patents divert the firm's focus from the central task of designing and deploying a product, and the benefits of excluding competitors are limited for firms that cannot themselves exploit the relevant technology. Once the firm is larger, a number of potential benefits appear. First, despite concerns that patents are not effective to appropriate profits from innovation in the software industry, a substantial number of software startups do have patents of sufficient strength to exclude competitors. That important finding, taken with the fact that the principal targets of those patents are much larger firms, suggests patents are more beneficial to small firms than to large firms. The Article then considers indirect effects related to the use of patents in cross-licensing transactions and in providing information about the firm. The first benefit may be substantial to firms that obtain patents, but the Article rejects patent use in cross-licensing as a net benefit to the industry: absent some other benefit, all firms would be better off saving the costs of obtaining patents. The information benefits, in contrast, seem to be net improvements to the innovation system. The central question, which I do not attempt to answer here, is whether those benefits are sufficiently substantial to justify the costs of obtaining the pa... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate over whether software is appropriate subject matter for patent protection continues to rage, without any clear resolution in sight. The European Patent Convention attempts to draw this distinction by excluding software programs from patent protection unless they have a ‘technical effect’. US law requires that a software program have a ‘practical utility’ to constitute patentable subject matter. Both such requirements fail to provide clear guidance in hard cases because they merely beg the question of what constitutes a ‘technical’ effect or a ‘practical’ utility. I recommend that software patent claims instead be evaluated in terms of three kinds of utility or effects: (1) physical utility, which refers to the direct physical effects of an invention, such as the movement of gears and levers in a mechanical cash register; (2) logical utility, which refers to the information processing tasks performed by an invention, such as the mathematical operations performed by a cash register; and (3) application utility, which refers to the usefulness of the invention to the end user, such as the increased accuracy and reduced calculation time made possible by a cash register. In particular, the physical utility requirement would require the applicant to demonstrate that the claimed software is susceptible of embodiment in a tangible form, the logical utility requirement would require the claimed software to be defined clearly in terms of the information processing steps it performs, and the application utility requirement would require the applicant to provide an industrial application of the claimed software. Furthermore, patent examiners and judges should be required to evaluate software patent claims expressly in terms of each kind of utility. This would clarify the basis for the decision in each case and avoid the now-common conflation of one kind of utility with another, thereby focusing any dispute over subject matter patentability on the particular kind of utility whose satisfaction is in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]