The Call for IPR Systems Reform 

It is imperative that Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) be protected in such a way as to promote innovation but at the same time allow for competition. Despite the successes in technology of the past few decades, an analysis of the IPR systems currently in place suggests that reform is necessary. The current systems do not address all the issues specific to technology that they need to. While obtaining a copyright is fairly straightforward and inexpensive, enforcement of copyrights is difficult. First, determining whether or not a software product has imitated a data structure or performance enhancing feature is difficult without seeing the source code, which is not readily available. Second, even if a violation is suspected, the scope of copyright and patent protection is in general not completely clear or clarified by past court cases, and costly litigation may ensue with uncertain outcomes. The threat of costly litigation may favor large companies with greater resources than small companies - this may cause inequality of protection for small companies, who don't have the resources to engage in litigation, and may be unable to fend off imitating, larger companies. Some IPR system is most likely needed to sustain the software industry at an optimal level, but improvements in the current IPR system must be implemented.

 

Approaching a Solution

The idea that the current system of IPRs is inadequate and not extensible enough to address the needs of software innovation has given rise to many different proposals that focus on non-legal initiatives to solve this problem. One is a different model of software development and distribution that may have an additional innovation generating effect (the "open source" movement). Two other proposals attempt to harness the power of the Internet to help solve this problem. The very characteristics of the Internet that create challenges to the traditional IPR system - the ability to transmit information freely and without physical or national boundaries - are also the very properties that may make the Internet the most promising tool for creating enhanced innovation in the software arena. Finally, we suggest a solution specfically regarding issues with patent law, in which patent terms are either reduced for software or removed as protection altogether.