PRESENTED BY: PRIYANKA CHAUHAN LAPYNHUN S SAIBORNE

What is a Patents??
Is a printed document in which the invention is fully described and the scope of the invention defined. Patents rights are granted for invention of new and useful processes, machines,manufactures, composition of matter or any new and useful improvement .


Like any other property rights it may be sold licensed mortgaged, assigned or transferred, given away, or simply abandoned.
The limited time period to a patent holder is usually 20 years.

What are Software Patents ??

Software Patents are patents that covers software ideas, ideas which you would use in developing software ,that is why makes them a dangerous obstacle to all software development. A software patent is a patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program. Patent law is inconsistent on this point as patents only covers ideas and the used of ideas. Patents are issued by a patent office in response to an application.


In U S we can actually patent software but not in Europe.
In India like the European union does not allow patents for inventions related to software.

Why is Patent software often rejected?

In the past ,patent law was not frequently used to protect software related inventions. Patent applications covering software related inventions were typically rejected as unstatutory.(Unstatutory invention are those invention which fall within certain classes for which patent statute prohibits issuance of patents). Algorithms(set of rules for solving in a finite number of problems) are included on the list of unstatutory invention.


Algorithms(set of rules for solving in a finite number of problems) are included on the list of unstatutory invention. Software related inventions were often rejected. Therefore the patent office was most likely to allow software related application if there was some novel hardware other than computer itself. Thus patent office favoured inventions relating to control processes but not inventions involving pure software.


Patent attorneys took steps such as disguising an invention as hardware, using block diagrams ,to try to avoid such rejections. Because of these difficulties and controversy about whether software should be capable of patent protection, some companies relied in the past solely on copyright protection and licencing agreements to protect their software patent.

Conclusion
In conclusion ,software is valuable and must be appropriately protected. Patents provide the strongest form of intellectual property protection and protect against independent creation. Guidelines issued by U.S. Patent and trademark office in 1996 made it easy to obtain patents on software related inventions.