2. Key questions
• How is software protected?
• Software crucial in digital world
• Interesting legal history
• Complex situation today
• How are copyright and patents
regulated generally?
• By whom? (institutions)
• How? (treaties)
3. Institutions and interest groups (selection)
• Supranational, governmental
• UN, WIPO, UNEduScCultO, ITU
• Business Organizations
• WTO
• (US) RIAA, MPAA, (EU) EICTA, ESOMA
• Civil Society
• EFF, FSF, OKFN, DigiGes, IP Justice, ...
Wikipedia is your friend. :)
4. »International IP Architecture«
UN WTO
153
WIPO UNESCO ITU
EU
183
WIPO
TRIPS EPC
Treaties
Member countries Member countries EU27
5. Art. 3 WIPO Convention
• Objectives of the Organization
• (i) to promote the protection of intellectual
property throughout the world through
cooperation among States and, where
appropriate, in collaboration with any
other international organization,
• (ii) to ensure administrative cooperation
among the Unions.
• »And when it comes to reforming WIPO, among
other things let's call for changing its name.«
(Richard Stallman)
6. WIPO Treaties
Performer & Producer Copyright Patents
Rome C Berne C Paris C
1961 1886 1883
WPPT WCT PCT
“Internet Treaties”
1996 1996 2000
Member countries
(EU) Database Directive 1996
(US) DMCA 1998 (US) Copyright Term Extension Act 1998
(EU) Copyright Directive 2001
(EU) IPR Enforcement Dir. (civil) 2004
[(EU) IPRED2 (criminal)] [(EU) Dir. Patentability of CII]
7. Mission of WTO
• The WTO shall provide the common
institutional framework for the conduct
of trade relations among its Members in
matters related to the agreements and
associated legal instruments included
in the Annexes to this Agreement.
Article 2, Marrakesh Agreement 1994
8. WTO Treaty
Annex Annex
1C 2
Dispute
TRIPS
Settlement
Member countries
Uruguay Round,
Doha Round...
9. Interaction
• How is software treated/protected
internationally?
• WTO and TRIPS?
• UN and WIPO?
• EU and EPC?
Handout !
Groups of three
10. WIPO WCT
• Art. 4: “Computer programs are
protected as literary works within the
meaning of Article 2 of the Berne
Convention. Such protection applies to
computer programs, whatever may be
the mode or form of their expression.”
11. WTO TRIPS
• Art. 10: “Computer programs, whether in
source or object code, shall be protected
as literary works under the Berne
Convention (1971).”
• Art. 27: “(...) patents shall be available for
any inventions, whether products or
processes, in all fields of technology,
provided that they are new, involve an
inventive step and are capable of
industrial application.”
13. Legal treatment of software is a complex issue
• Is software protected by patents?
(a) Yes
(b) No
(c) It depends (… on what?)
(d) I don’t know.
• Is software protected by copyright?
• Since when?
• OpenExpo talk »History Repeating«
