Re: Software patents...
Ralph Crongeyer wrote:
Does anyone on this list know about or where/who to find info about
software patents?
My specific question is this: if I wrote a program my company that was
being used on a government project and then I left the company and
wanted to completely rewrite the code (it will do the same thing) and
patent it myself, is that legal?
Ralph
Ralph,
You may be confusing patent with copyright. To start you will need to
consider what, if any, employment agreement you had. The law surrounding
software patents is jurisdiction specific. Most jurisdiction do not
allow software-only patents, some do, and some allow software that is
part of an invention to be patented as part of the invention. In any
event a patent requires the expression be novel, the fact that this
invention has already been expressed would count at prior art and be
used to invalidate any patent that was granted.
In any event I would suggest going to the gvt site in your country and
looking for the copyright &/or patent office. There will be enough
information to get you started. Some countries (Canada) have a combined
Intelectual Property Office that covers copyright/trademark/patent,
others are different offices.
Dave
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