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ARTICLE · 08 JUNE 2021

Intellectual Property Rights In Software – What They Are And How To Protect Them

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Like any other industry, intellectual property rights are at the core foundation of the software industry and refers to a range of official/unofficial rights of ownership in an asset such as a...

IndiaIntellectual Property
Parul Srivastava
Parul Srivastava
Saipriya Balasubramanian
Saipriya Balasubramanian
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 Like any other industry, intellectual property rights are at the core foundation of the software industry and refers to a range of official/unofficial rights of ownership in an asset such as a software. The law provides different methods for protecting these rights of ownership based on their type.

There are essentially four types of intellectual property rights relevant to software patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks.

PATENTS

A patent can preserve the unique and secret aspect of an idea and its functional aspect. Obtaining a patent is very difficult as compared to obtaining a copyright. A thorough disclosure is required with the software. The patent holder has to reveal the full details of a program to a competent programmer for building a program. Under Section 3(k) of the Indian Patents Act 1970, computer programmes “per se” are excluded from patentability. However, Section 3(k) is not a blanket provision that excludes all the computer

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