Formation of Legal Protection of Computer Software by the Rules of Copyright and Patent Law

Abstract

Introduction. Computer programs (CP) are one of the newest objects of intellectual property. Neither the norms of copyright or patent law, nor attempts to develop separate legislation have enabled creating a legal mechanism that would not cause significant complaints from stakeholders.
Problem Statement. An analysis of the historical factors that led to the choice of different approaches to the legal protection of computer programs enables to better understand the system in each country, to choose the most appropriate ways to acquire the rights and protection of these objects of intellectual property, to defend their property and non-property rights, and to look for new, more reasonable and efficient ways of solving problems in this field.
Purpose. To study the world history of the formation and development of legal protection of computer software by the rules of copyright and patent law.
Materials and Methods. Critical review of literary sources on intellectual property and computer science, comparative analysis of international and national legislation of various countries, study of judicial practice that has had the greatest impact on the practical solution to the problem of protecting computer programs.
Results. The main stages in the history of the development and formation of ways of legal protection of computer programs have been identified and characterized. Intellectual property and computer sciences materials, international and national legislation of different countries, jurisprudence, the most important historical events and outstanding inventions in this field have been analyzed. The dominant position of the computer program copyright protection has been established not always to correspond with the rights and interests of their authors who increasingly support the introduction of alternative, patent and legal protection of computer programs by special legislation rather than by the precedent law.
Conclusions. It has been proposed to introduce a hybrid copyright-patent way of CP legal protection, which would combine the advantages of both methods, as a compromise solution to the problem of competition between the CP legal protection by means of the copyright and patent law.