Software Escrow: An enterprise resiliency tool every legal department should have in their toolbox (with Don Dennis Jr.)
IP|Trend: Discovering Source Code
Understanding how hardware and firmware/software work together to perform desired functions or tasks is an important enabler to unlocking the value of intellectual properties in the systems (including embedded systems) area....more
According to Statista*, in 2020 computer technology patents made up the majority of patent applications in the U.S., totalling approximately 60,000 patents. In 2022, Unified Patents** found that software, hardware, and...more
Generally, an employer owns all rights in software code created by its employee in the scope of their employment. As outlined in the last edition of this series, this general rule typically applies to independent contractors...more
The Federal Circuit is charged with disposing of the mandamus petitions that regularly arise from decisions denying transfer under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) in Texas patent litigation. The Fifth Circuit, whose law the Federal...more
On September 27, 2023, FDA finalized its guidance entitled “Cybersecurity in Medical Devices: Quality System Considerations and Content of Premarket Submissions” (the “2023 Final Guidance”). The Final Guidance replaces...more
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has amended the Export Administration Regulation’s (EAR) definition of “release” so that it does not apply to the provision of access information that would unlock “object code”...more
Companies (including through the use of AI) are increasingly reliant on open source software to expedite their software development. A recent case filed in California, SFC v. Vizio, calls upon the state court to interpret two...more
In Part 1 of this article, I addressed various legal issues that can arise with AI-based code generators. Many of these problems stem from using open source to train the models and the compliance obligations imposed by the...more
AI-based code generators are a powerful application of generative AI. These tools leverage AI to assist code developers by using AI models to auto-complete or suggest code based on developer inputs or tests. These tools raise...more
Roblox recently announced that it is working on generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools that will help developers who build experiences on Roblox, to more easily create games and assets. The first two test tools create...more
While not new, the use of “open data” is on the rise as teams everywhere look for existing low-cost datasets to facilitate their projects without the need to personally incur the time, expense and internal approval process of...more
Blockchains are the Doritos Locos Taco of computer science. Complex as software can become, there are a limited number of tools available to software developers. Software developers combine arrays, databases, objects,...more
Non-profit organizations often use third-party images, photos, videos, or software in their everyday operations. It is often beneficial to leverage such materials that are licensed under “open licenses” because they are free...more
Due to the size and complexity of computer code, the software is usually created by a team of programmers. Consequently, to fully own software one must first make sure that each of the developers has relinquished any...more
In today’s digital age, the question isn’t whether there is open source software being used in a company’s products, but how it is being used and what license governs its use. Open source is ubiquitous. Despite its...more
Copyright protection is, generally speaking, formality-free in the US and other member states of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. A software rights owner does not have to publish, affix...more
To determine which computer program elements are copyrightable, the federal courts (which have exclusive jurisdiction over US copyright cases) commonly identify and analyze each of the program’s literal and non-literal...more
Jerich Beason is joined by Don Dennis, who is an attorney focusing on copyright and trademark infringement, Internet law, defamation, trade secret misappropriation, data security breach, and privacy law. Jerich and Don...more
As patent practitioners know, the law sometimes defines technical topics in ways that do not always accord with how engineers and scientists understand those same topics. With that, since this series addresses legal...more
The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Wi-LAN Inc. v. Sharp Electronics Corp. demonstrates potential difficulties for plaintiffs in proving infringement where third-party information is necessary to establish that...more
WI-LAN INC. v. SHARP ELECTRONICS CORPORATION - Before Dyk, Taranto, and Stoll. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Summary: Source code evidence found to be inadmissible hearsay...more
On October 7, 2020, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Google v. Oracle, a decade-long battle challenging Oracle’s claim to own copyrights in certain aspects of its Java software platform that Google implemented in Android...more
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on October 7 in Google v. Oracle, which involves a Federal Circuit decision that we have discussed here. The primary question is whether the code of application programming interfaces...more
Learn how copyright can protect your software “Beyond Source Code” to cover both screen displays and UX, how the scope of software copyright law might impacted by the pending Supreme Court opinion in Oracle v. Google, and the...more
What is open-source software? To ask the question is almost to answer it. Open source software (OSS) simply describes software code that is distributed on an “open-source” basis – which means, in a way that allows others to...more