was hired by the defendants. He brought a manager and two programmers with him. He developed a bond trading program, using the same computer language as his old employers, and opened for business rapidly. The defendants were sued on basis that speed suggested that they must have copied. It was accepted that the whole of the plaintiffs system had at one stage been loaded on the defendant’s system. But the expert evidence was that while copying had been the intention, and then to disguise it, the truth was the system had been designed from scratch. Copying that had taken place for ‘reassurance’ was a technical breach of copyright. However, only 3.3% of the code had been copied. The court also held that in relation to copyright of computer code the question was how substantial was the copying. What is substantial depends on the skill of the author and does not protect purely mechanical work.
In terms of patents, the European approach has been to exclude computer programs from the benefit of patent protection as such. The key test is whether the program invention has a ‘technical effect’ or ‘technical character.’ If a technical contribution cannot be made out, then the program cannot be patented. In contrast, the US system recognises computer program patents and computer generated business method patents. The US does not require a ‘technical contribution’ as long as the computerised business method provides a ‘useful, concrete and tangible result.’ The EU had rece英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】ntly proposed a new Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions, in order to liberalise this area, however it now appears that this Directive is unlikely to ever see the light of day.
Information Location Tools and Hypertext issues
Search engines and Directories
Search engines are computer programs that are used to scour the World Wide Web for relevant internet pages. Examples include, Google, Yahoo, MSN, askjeeves. A search engine displays and ranks websites according to their relevance to the subject matter. In order to increase a website’s search engine ranking, web developers may insert metatags into the source code of the website. Metatags are readable codes in the underlying program that assist the computer to identify the website. Such tags may contain words or phrases that describe the nature or content of the site. Website designers may include copyrighted material or trademarks in the metatag program to increase the website’s ranking on a search engine. Certain search engines, such as http://uk.search.msn.com, will display a thumbnail sketch of selected websites. The copying and display of such images may lead to IP liability since the image is being reproduced and forwarded to third persons, without the knowledge or authorisation of the copyright/trademark holder.
In terms of trademarks, the use of metatags may result in trademark violations. Section 10 of the UK Trademarks Act 19
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