CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Kobakhidze, Tornike |
|---|---|
| Title | Software as Patentable Subject Matter: Analysis of European and U.S. Jurisdictions |
| Summary | The significance of the software industry has been growing at an immense speed. Due to its unique nature, world’s legislators have faced a tough challenge of regulating this field. This issue has been particularly intensified in the field of intellectual property (IP) protection. Software is a creation of the human mind and thus it qualifies for IP protection. However, the IP offices have found it difficult to catch up with the ever-expanding nature of the software. Eligibility of the software for copyright protection is not disputed, however, its patentability is ambiguous. Legal certainty in this field is of an utter importance because software industry needs a consistent legal environment to flourish. An uncertain legal environment undermines its prosperous economic potential, stifles innovation and prevents the effectiveness of the public debates about policy implications. There are several lacunas regarding software patentability rules in the existing systems and the focus of this paper will be the analysis of those rules, identification of the issues and determination of a superior jurisdiction based on the perspective of the legal certainty. The laws of the U.S. and Europe will be analyzed, because large part of the software developers is located in those jurisdictions and also the differences between those systems clearly illustrate the importance and the complicated nature of the topic. The main source of analysis will be the case law of the respective jurisdictions, because, considering the speed this industry evolves at, it’s difficult for the legislation to catch up. The analysis of the jurisdictions will show that both systems lack the certainty and predictability which endangers the software industry as a whole. The paper will briefly discuss the implications of the current approaches. The comparison will conclude that European jurisdiction is superior to the U.S. one, because it offers more certain legal environment. |
| Supervisor | Lawrence, Jessica Charles; Soave, Tommaso |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/kobakhidze_tornike.pdf |
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