A patent is a form of intellectual property defined as “a government authority or licence conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention.” The purpose of a patent is to protect the intellectual property created by an inventor for a period of time so that the inventor has first rights over how he wishes to use...
One of the persistent threats to India’s software product ecosystem is from the constant push by MNCs for allowing software patents in India. India’s nascent software product industry is growing rapidly and is on a trajectory where we can see global brands like Amazon, Google and Facebook emerge in the next 10 years. One of the persistent threats to India’s software product...
A couple of months ago, you might have noticed press reports where iSPIRT took a strong stance against software patents in India. The global experience with software patents has been that it leads to increased patent litigation, and uncertainty for startups. Thanks to some enlightened policy making, India has been relatively free of the kind of software patent lawsuits that we see in the US, and...
Rohini Lakshané attended “Open Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Our Digital Culture” in Bangalore on August 13, 2015. Major takeaways from the event are documented in this post. Prof. Eben Moglen on FOSS and entrepreneurship The culture of business in the 21st century needs open source software or free software because there is one Internet governed by one set of rules, protocols and APIs that...
The Company where the engineers are employed for product development OR the Company employing them OR the product development team ? This is an oft arising question in the software industry and of great relevance in fighting a corporate battle for claiming Copyright /IP and patent control of a product developed by the employees of a company. Logically speaking, the employees work under the...
As an entrepreneur launching a business in the IT and Software industry, one has his hand full with beating the competition and managing the overheads. The race is tough enough without employees stealing million dollar ideas and venture capitalists pulling the fast one during an acquisition. It is critical that start-up especially in the IT and Software Industry build a strong IP portfolio and...
In todays exacting times, large corporations like to secure their business continuity on IT products and services sourced from smaller companies, by seeking access to the basic product source code. While the smaller IT companies spend man years developing cutting edge technology solutions, this sharing of the source code could kill their future and business. The way out is an “Software Escrow...
In the scramble to get to market, protecting the IP of your invention sometimes takes a backseat. This is a mistake and one that can have potentially damaging long-term effects. In this article we examine how developing a proactive IP Strategy can mitigate IP risk for a startup. Startup Priorities Most startups begin with a good idea and an identified solution that solves a key need in the...
