Intellectual Property Rights in Computer Science

Understanding of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is crucial in order to facilitate commercialization of academic research and research performed in private companies. Unprotected inventions are usually wasted inventions. Research and development take a lot of time and require significant amount of money spent on equipment, technology, and salaries. Therefore, it is very important to secure the outcome by restricting other people from copying and selling the invention. There are several ways of protecting our work: patents, design rights, copyrights, and trademarks. In software engineering the last two -- copyrights and trademarks -- are broadly used. Copyrighting computer programs is not only made for obtaining proper license fees in the future. Free software uses copyright to secure its freedom and to prohibit other users from making it proprietary and selling it for money. Making an invention must be preceded by looking at the existing market. Proper market analysis is needed to assure that we will not waste time for innovations which are already made, or for ones, for which will not be a need.