Microsoft Although the main reporting of the massive ‘fine’ imposed by the EU Commission has been relatively sensational, the truth is that this was to a large extent the realisation of a calculation. It is not in fact a ‘fine’ in the strictest sense – or in EU parlance. It may be thought to have…
New NCC research claims that software rights-holders are shifting the legal burden onto consumers who buy computer programmes, leaving them, say the NCC, with less protection than when they buy a cheap biro. The OFT has been asked to examine the potentially unfair contract terms of 17 firms that NCC has identified in Whose licence is…
Laurence Eastham reviews the blogs that might help you keep informed, sharpen up your opinions or just help fill the slack working days which so many IT lawyers complain about….
Computer games based on films are nothing new. However, a new movement has given an interesting twist to this process. Machinima is a burgeoning new film form where films are made using 3D real-time technology. To quote the machinima Academy of Arts and Sciences,[1] machinima is: ‘the convergence of filmmaking, animation and game development….
In December 2007, the Data Sharing Review Secretariat sought responses to a range of questions on the steps that might be taken to improve the workings of the Data Protection Act 1998 with a particular focus on data sharing. SCL’s Privacy and Data Protection Interest Group has worked on a meaningful response, with Andrew Sharpe…
UK-IPO issued a new Practice Note on 7 February, taking account of the judgment in Astron Clinica & Ors v The Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks [2008] EWHC 85 (Pat). The UK-IPO press release states: In a judgment in November 2006 in the cases of Aerotel Ltd v Telco Holdings Ltd (and…
Read More… from UK-IPO Change of Practice on Computer Programs
Legal Background Section 1(2) of the UK Patents Act 1977, made to correspond to Article 52(2) and (3) of the European Patent Convention (EPC),[1] excludes computer programs from being considered as being patentable inventions, but only to the extent that the patent relates to a computer program ‘as such’. This provision, and in particular how…
Read More… from Astron Clinica: Computer Program Product Claims in UK Patents
1. What is Protected Database rights are protectable under the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations (SI 1997 No 3032). A database is defined as a collection of independent works, data or other materials which are arranged in a systematic or methodical way and are individually accessible by electronic or other means. A property right (‘database…
The following details are taken from the judgment of the court. The full judgment can be accessed here. Promusicae is a non-profit-making organisation of producers and publishers of musical and audiovisual recordings. By letter of 28 November 2005 it made an application to the Juzgado de lo Mercantil No 5 de Madrid (Commercial Court No…
Read More… from ISPs and File-exchangers’ IDs: Promusicae v Telefonica
Deloitte & Touche LLP, the business advisory firm, announced on 31 January details of a survey looking at security in the consumer business industry. Key findings from the survey reveal 80% of companies do not have an information security strategy formally defined and 86% have never performed an inventory to understand where their data is…