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ISBN: 978-0-596-51796-0 [M] 1215097554 www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS PREFACE ix 1 THE ECONOMIC AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 1 Law and Code 3 The Types of Intellectual Property 4 Intellectual Property and Market Failure 6 Evaluating the System 18 2 THE PATENT DOCUMENT 21 The Construction of a Patent 22 The Face of the Patent 23 Conception of the Invention 27 The Body of the Patent 37 The Claims 44 Other Resources 47 3 THE PATENT SYSTEM 49 The Patent System As a Knowledge Cache 50 Requirements for Getting a Patent 51 Getting a Patent 60 Patent Proliferation 65 4 COPYRIGHT 71 Copyright in Context 71 The Terms of Copyright 83 The Copyright Term 92 Owning a Copyright 93 The Rights Granted by Copyright 96 5 TRADEMARKS 103 Trademarks Defined 103 The Economic Function of Trademarks 107 Modern Trademark Law in the United States 110 6 TRADE SECRETS 119 Trade Secrets Defined 120 The Flaming Moe: The Life and Death of a Trade Secret 120 Trade Secrets and Software Development 129 Trade Secrets, Businesses, and Consultants 131 7 CONTRACTS AND LICENSES 133 Licenses and Firewalls 133 v www.it-ebooks.info Why Contracts and Licenses Matter 134 Contract Law Principles 138 Intellectual Property Contracts 146 Applying a License to Intellectual Property 150 8 THE ECONOMIC AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE 153 A Brief Digression into Terminology 154 Understanding Open Source 155 Credit Unions and Open Source: An Analogy 155 The Role of Open Source Licenses 168 The Open Source Definition 172 Different Types of Open Source Licenses 177 9 SO I HAVE AN IDEA 179 Cautionary Tales 179 Employees and Inventions 182 Look At What You Sign 182 The Employer-Employee Relationship 187 Tell the Company 193 What Do You Do? 195 10 CHOOSING A LICENSE 197 Why Do I Need a License? 197 No License Required 198 Proprietary Commercial Licensing 200 Open Source Licensing 201 Why You Should Not Write Your Own License 204 Choosing an Open Source License 207 11 ACCEPTING PATCHES AND CONTRIBUTIONS 215 Back to (Copyright) Basics 215 Three Solutions 217 Administrative Issues 221 12 WORKING WITH THE GPL 223 Daily Life with the GPL 224 Understanding the Terms of the Debate 226 Linking and Licensing 228 Copyright Confusion 229 Thinking About Derivative Works 232 Questions and Answers 235 13 REVERSE ENGINEERING 239 Storming the Castle 239 A Sample Reverse Engineering Procedure 245 The Digital Millennium Copyright Act 251 14 INCORPORATING AS A NON-PROFIT 253 Why Incorporate Your Project? 253 Creating a Non-Profit Entity 257 vi CO NT EN TS www.it-ebooks.info Operating a Non-Profit Organization 263 Umbrella Organizations As an Alternative 268 A SAMPLE PROPRIETARY INFORMATION AGREEMENT (PIA) 271 B OPEN SOURCE LICENSE LIST 281 C FREE SOFTWARE LICENSE LIST 285 D FEDORA LICENSE LIST AND GPL COMPATIBILITY 289 E PUBLIC DOMAIN DECLARATION 299 F THE SIMPLIFIED BSD LICENSE 301 G THE APACHE LICENSE, VERSION 2.0 303 H THE MOZILLA PUBLIC LICENSE, VERSION 1.1 309 I THE GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, VERSION 2.1 319 J THE GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, VERSION 3 329 K THE GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, VERSION 2, JUNE 1991 333 L THE GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, VERSION 3, JUNE 2007 341 M THE OPEN SOFTWARE LICENSE, VERSION 3.0 355 INDEX 359 C ON TE NT S vii www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info [...]... naming and describing the different types of intellectual property doesn’t do enough to explain why the intellectual property system works the way it does To understand the reasons behind the messiness of intellectual property, it is necessary to stand back and look at the system as a whole, as well as the problems intellectual property was designed to fix Intellectual Property and Market Failure Intellectual. .. agreements are given the force of law • Chapter 8 turns to open source and places it in context This chapter reexamines some of the social and economic issues associated with intellectual property, and then looks at how the mechanism of open source licensing provides a different way of addressing those concerns xii PREFACE An Intellectual Property Handbook for Developers • Chapter 9 starts with your idea... pointing out that the term intellectual property puts many separate laws and concepts into a single indefinite box 2 CHAPTER 1: THE ECONOMIC AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Intellectual property law is, in many ways, a study in contradictions I think that it is easiest to understand, however, by thinking about intellectual property law as code Law and Code Imagine you are a software developer... purpose of intellectual property in economic terms Modern intellectual property law has two objectives, first, to allow individuals to be compensated for the costs and risks inherent in knowledge creation, and second, to balance and align the interests of individuals and society by providing individual incentives to develop and share knowledge and societal protection for certain types of secrets Intellectual. .. most common American justification for intellectual property and it is the justification that most closely fits with the patent and copyright portions of our intellectual property system It is not, however, the only justification for intellectual property and it does not neatly match up to some other parts of our legal system Another justification for intellectual property comes from John Locke’s natural... on the land, drilling or mining on the land, building on the land, living on the land, and walking or driving across a particular portion of the land In some cases there may be other rights, such as the right to build a tall building on the land (separate from short building rights), the right to use the water on the land, and the right to fish or hunt on the land Each one of these rights (and almost... intellectual property work? Yes and no In one sense, our intellectual property system has been phenomenally successful in encouraging people to create intellectual property For the past 50 years and especially the past 30—there has been a tide of stronger intellectual property protections across industries This growth in IP has encouraged people to invest heavily in the development of new intellectual property, ... important to understand not only the current intellectual property laws, but also the structure and purpose of the underlying system Part of this swing toward openness is reflected in the growing acceptance and importance of open source software Whether or not people agree about the desirability of intellectual property, it still has to be acknowledged as an independent discipline and a major force in... property, and has moved IP to the core of many business strategies For most businesses in the United States, in fact, the intellectual property part of the business is the most valuable aspect of the business Nevertheless, people’s attitudes about intellectual property are changing We are starting to see a swing away from stronger intellectual property protections, and toward more openness and collaboration... fundamental misunderstanding Intellectual property is a hybrid good made up of equal parts information and law The IP minimalists look at the hybrid and see only the underlying information; the IP maximalists look at the hybrid and see only the legal controls In this hybrid sense, at least, the term intellectual property is appropriate: it acknowledges both the informational and legal aspects of the . Terminology 154 Understanding Open Source 155 Credit Unions and Open Source: An Analogy 155 The Role of Open Source Licenses 168 The Open Source Definition 172 Different Types of Open Source Licenses. www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info Intellectual Property and Open Source www.it-ebooks.info Other resources from O’Reilly Related titles Applied Software Management Hackers & Painters Open Sources Open Sources 2.0 Producing. 978-0-596-51796-0 [M] 1215097554 www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS PREFACE ix 1 THE ECONOMIC AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 1 Law and Code 3 The Types of Intellectual Property 4 Intellectual Property and Market Failure 6 Evaluating the