December

07
2005

3:00 pm EST - 5:00 pm EST

Past Event

Software and Law: Is Regulation Fostering or Inhibiting Innovation?

  • Wednesday, December 7, 2005

    3:00 pm - 5:00 pm EST

The Brookings Institution
Falk Auditorium

1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC

In the last few decades, computers have gone from a relative novelty to an essential element of virtually every aspect of business and government operations. In a new book, Math you Can’t Use: Patents, Copyright, and Software (Brookings 2005), author Ben Klemens discusses the theoretical structures and practical issues underlying patent and copyright law, the software business as it is practiced today, and software itself. Experts in the software field will join Dr. Klemens at a panel discussion to analyze whether the issues in applying patent law to software can be readily resolved, how the Patent Reform Act of 2005 can help or hinder the industry, and future prospects for software law in the European Union, India, and China and other fast-developing countries.

To date, patent law has been applied to software with virtually no modification. Few, if any, computer scientists and businessmen and women in the computing field are satisfied with how it has been transferred to software. Even copyright as applied to software has its pitfalls. Some recommend minor fixes to the existing regimes, and some recommend wholesale reform.

Panelists will take audience questions following their remarks.

Agenda

  • December 7
    • Introduction

      Ben Klemens Senior Statistician - Office of Tax Analysts, U.S. Department of Treasury
    • Panel

      BK
      Brian Kahin CCIA
      DBR
      Daniel B. Ravicher President, Executive Director Public Patent Foundation
      ES
      Emery Simon Business Software Alliance
      Kenneth Dam Max Pam Professor Emeritus of American & Foreign Law - University of Chicago Law School