There are though, exceptions to this because the creator may have produced it due to employment, were then the employer would own the copyright of the idea/work produced in physical form
Copyright must be applied for, and to do so there are minimal standards that must be met before qualifying for it. These standards include elements such as ‘skill’, ‘originality’ and ‘effort’. The copyright will expire after a set period of time, but maybe renewed by re-applying.
When something is copyrighted, there is a small symbol that is placed along side it, which is internationally recognised. After the © symbol, the year(s) of copyright are listed. If the work has been modified or updated (i.e., a new edition has been released) and re-copyrighted, there will be more than one year listed after the symbol.
A copyright protects original works that fall under the categories of literature, dramatic, musical, artistic, and intellectual. These works may be published or unpublished, and the Copyright Act of 1976 gives the owner exclusive rights to reproduce their work in any medium.
A copyright protects a form of expression, but not the subject matter of the work. For example, if someone wrote an article about a new car on the market, the book would be copyrighted, which would prevent someone else from using that particular material. However, a copyright does not prevent others from writing their own original article about this new car, or from using or making the car themselves.
Example:
“Sony has suffered a setback in its international fight against "mod chips" that enable its PlayStation video game machines to play illegally copied games.”
“A federal judge in Australia ruled Friday that mod chips sold for the original PlayStation do not infringe on Sony copyright protections under Australian laws, which are similar to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The decision comes a week after a Canadian man was sentenced to probation and fined $17,000 for selling mod chips and pirated games for Sony's PlayStation 2.”
(News.com, 2002)
Patent
Definition:
“A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a government to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of an invention. The person applying for a patent does not need to be the inventor who created or authored the invention.”
“The exclusive right granted a person that wishes to patent an invention (the patentee) has the right to prevent others from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the claimed invention. The rights given to the patentee do not include the right to make, use, or sell the invention themselves. The patentee may have to comply with other laws and regulations to make use of the claimed invention.”
2. (Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopaedia, 2006)
Example of a Patent document
(Crichton Miller, Unknown Date)
Explanation:
A patent gives someone the right to stop someone else from making, using or selling the piece that they have the patent to. Although the person might need to co-inside with other laws to ‘use’ the piece they have patented.
For example, if a doctor creates the cure to an illness and wants to obtain a patent on the new solution, the doctor wouldn’t be able to market it without regulatory approval.
A patent document is stamped in the bottom left hand corner, with an official red ‘star’ or circular patent ‘logo’. This is to ensure authenticity and so that forged documents can not be produced.
A patent lasts for a limited amount of time, usually 20 years from the date the application was filed, and is only effective in the country in which it was filed. The application for a patent must include a detailed description of how the invention works. Since a patent is considered "property," it may be bought, sold, mortgaged, or licensed by the owner.
Example:
“The Hills Hoist is a rotary clothes line fitted with a hoist operated by a crown and pinion winding mechanism which allows the frame to be raised and lowered. It was developed and marketed by Lance Hill in 1945 after he returned from the war. The idea of a rotary clothes line wasn't new - US patent 434921 of 26 August 1890 is much earlier and there were similar products in Australia. Hills initial patent application lapsed, but he obtained a patent in 1956 for the winding mechanism. Hills Hoists are now sold throughout Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. The Hills name has trade mark protection for a variety of products.”
(Australian Government: IP Australia, Unknown Date)
Confidential Information
Definition:
“Confidentiality and the law of confidence are concerned with secrets of all kinds. Confidentiality is extremely well suited to protecting information during the development stages of a creative work before, for example, the idea is well enough formulated to become the subject matter of a patent. An obligation of confidence will be imposed in a large number of situations. These may be expressed, for example, in a confidentiality agreement. In addition however, confidentiality is implied into many relationships, contractual or otherwise.”
(British Interactive Media Association, 2004)
Explanation:
Confidential information is not defined by statute but by case law. The Law of Confidence protects information, which includes trade secrets, business know-how and client lists.
Whereas other intellectual property rights such as copyright and patents are particularly useful when the subject matter is made public by exploitation of the right owner, the law of confidence gives protection to things not released to the public and not part of the public domain or knowledge. Indeed, this is the whole point of the law of confidence, and its most useful feature is that, in appropriate cases an injunction can be obtained preventing an anticipated wrongful use of information that is the subject matter of the confidentiality.
Good business practice involves knowing what confidential information you have and taking steps to protect it. Leaving it to chance is risky and increases the cost of successfully resolving disputes.
Example:
An example of confidential information can include a situation such as an employee working for a company/organisation that contains information that can not be shared publicly (e.g. Doctors surgery). In this situation, the Doctor would not be allowed to publicly share information or details to any one else about the patients they deal with.
Civil and Criminal Court
This plan of the court system shows you how each court relates to each other.
Different courts have different trials and hearings, depending on the case in hand.
Virtually all criminal cases start in a magistrates’ court and over 95% of cases are also completed here. Magistrates’ courts deal with many civil cases, mostly family matters plus liquor licensing and betting and gaming work.
The Crown court deals with more serious criminal cases transferred from the magistrates’ court such as murder, rape and robbery. It also hears appeals against decisions made in the magistrates’ courts and deals with cases sent from magistrates’ courts for sentence.
The Tribunals Service hears appeals from decisions on immigration, social security, child support, pensions, tax and lands.
The County Court deals with the majority of civil cases, as well as some family and bankruptcy hearings. Civil cases include claims for debt, personal injury, breach of contract concerning goods or property, family issues such as divorce or adoption and the repossession of houses. Each court has Bailiffs who enforce court orders and seek to collect money if a judgment has not been paid.
The Divisional Courts deal with appeals from the Crown Courts, Magistrates’ Courts and County Courts.
Generally, the most difficult and complicated civil cases are dealt with in the High Court, either at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, or at High Court Centres in England and Wales. The High Court is made up of three divisions; Chancery, Family and Queen's Bench.
The Chancery Division covers a broad spectrum of work. This division is increasingly involved with financial regulatory work, director disqualification and professional negligence. The Queen’s Bench Division deals broadly with actions for damages arising from civil wrongs, known as ‘torts’ breaches of contract and libel. The Family Division deals with matters such as family homes, domestic violence, wardship and adoption applications, and declarations in medical treatment cases.
The main function of the Court of Appeal Criminal Division is to deal with appeals against conviction and/or sentence arising from proceedings in the Crown Court (which deals with the more serious criminal offences). The Court of Appeal Civil Division hears appeals from the three divisions of the High Court (Chancery Division, Queen’s Bench Division and Family Division), from county courts and some tribunals.
The House of Lords is the final appeal court in the UK. It hears appeals from the Court of Appeal and in exceptional circumstances from the High Court. It hears appeals on points of law of general public importance.
A Case with paraphrased precedent
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (USSC+)
Argued December 9, 1952
Reargued December 8, 1953
Decided May 17, 1954
“Brown v. Board of Education: -the Supreme Court decision in 1954 that declared segregation of public schools unconstitutional. The case was brought by the father of a girl in Topeka, Kansas. The child had to attend a segregated black school instead of an all white school that was much closer to her house. Her case was argued by Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first black Supreme Court justice. “
“The Brown decision overturned the Court’s earlier ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which held that “separate but equal” public facilities were constitutional. In later cases in the years after the Brown decision, the Court extended its logic to almost total ban segregation.”
(Fast Track to America’s Past, approx. 1999)
“The court had shown that stare decisis is not an unbreakable command. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ordered school desegregation, striking down the "separate but equal" rule the court had established in Plessy v. Ferguson 58 years earlier.”
Definitions
Precedent: - A rule of law that is established by an appellate court in an earlier case serves as binding precedent in all subsequent similar cases.
Stare decisis: -Once a decision has been made on a certain set of facts, that precedent will be applied to all subsequent cases which have the same facts
‘Separate but equal’: - Was a policy enacted into law throughout the U.S. Southern states during the period of segregation, in which African-Americans and European-Americans would receive the same services (schools, hospitals, water fountains, bathrooms, etc.), but that there would be distinct facilities for each race.
In practice, the services and facilities reserved for African-Americans were frequently of lower quality than those reserved for whites; for example, many African-American schools received less public funding per student than nearby white schools.
(Washingtonpost.com, 2005)
Conclusion
In conclusion, from the information that has been put together within this report about protecting newly developed software, my colleague and I have found that using a combination of confidential information plus one of the other two methods of protection is the most effective way as they all have their own advantages.
It can be seen that there is a sequence that can be followed in order to protect software effectively, using the three methods mentioned in this briefing report.
Confidential information is best suited to the design and development stages. It concentrates on protecting the information and details that are not released to the public, which are behind the actual finished product. This method of protection is effective once the software is made public. Once the software is fully completed the next step would be patenting the software.
Patenting the software offers certain protection but aspects such as the use of the product are not covered by this method, and may have to meet regulatory approval to be marketed. Other laws and regulations also have to be met when applying for patent. It could be seen as choice that is more of an addition to copyright than a fixed option.
Copyright is relatively easy to understand and implement, but the software requiring protection of copyright would have to pass specific standards for it to qualify. A disadvantage of using copyright is that it would need reapplying for after the set time period had expired.
A patent for an invention grants a property right to the inventor that will prevent anyone else from making, using, or selling an invention, whereas copyright prevents someone else from using that particular material. But it doesn’t stop others from producing their own original work similar to that material.
Therefore, this report suggests that to effectively and correctively protect the software that is being developed, the best method to use is a combination of Confidential Information along with either Patenting or Copyright.
Sources of Information
Australian Government: IP Australia; Unknown; Australian Government: IP Australia; ; Date Accessed: - 2nd March 2006
Becker, David, Staff Writer; 2002; News.com; ; Date Accessed: - 6th March 2006
Burns, David; approx. 1999; Fast Track to America’s Past; ; Date Accessed: - 15th March 2006
E M Miller, Crichton; Unknown; Crichton Miller; ; Date Accessed: - 7th March 2006
Lane, Charles; 2005; Washingtonpost.com; ; Date Accessed: - 9th March 2006
Unknown; 2004; British Interactive Media Association; www.bima.co.uk/content_resources/ Briffa/Feb%2004%20Confidentiality.doc ; Date Accessed: - 8th March 2006
1. Unknown; 2006; Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopaedia; ; Date Accessed: - 1st March 2006
2. Unknown; 2006; Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopaedia; ; Date Accessed: - 1st March 2006
