ARTICLE · 16 MAY 2012

SAS v WPL: Who Dares, Loses

CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang

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The CJEU has now ruled on the issues referred to it in the case of SAS Institute Inc. v World Programming Ltd, confirming that the copyright protection of computer programs includes source code and object code, but not the functionality of a computer program, its programming language or the format of data files used to exploit certain functions.

United KingdomIntellectual Property

Tom Scourfield

Ian Stevens

The CJEU has now ruled on the issues referred to it in the case of SAS Institute Inc. v World Programming Ltd, confirming that the copyright protection of computer programs includes source code and object code, but not the functionality of a computer program, its programming language or the format of data files used to exploit certain functions. The Court also considered Article 5(3) of Directive 91/250/EEC and confirmed that this clearly permitted a licensee to observe, study or test the functioning of a program in order to determine the ideas and principles underlying any element of it. Finally, the Court considered the scope of copyright protection for the user manual of a computer program.

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