A Brief History of Software Patents (and Why They're Valid)

Arizona Law Review Syllabus, vol. 56 (2014), 62-77

George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 14-41

16 Pages Posted: 9 Aug 2014 Last revised: 15 May 2018

See all articles by Adam Mossoff

Adam Mossoff

George Mason University - Antonin Scalia Law School

Date Written: August 7, 2014

Abstract

Today, there is a vigorous and sometimes caustic debate over whether computer software is a patentable invention. Unfortunately, these arguments are rife with confusion about the technology and the law, and courts are proving to be equally confused. As opposed to continuing the entirely doctrinal and policy debate in the literature, this essay fills a gap in the scholarship by detailing the historical evolution of computer software and showing how intellectual property (IP) law played a key role in its technological development. This historical account contributes to the debates in two ways. First, it reveals that opposition to IP protection for software is not new. There was vociferous opposition in the 1960s to extending copyright protection to software code, just as there is strident opposition today to extending patent protection to software programs. Second, and more important, it reveals why courts extended patent protection to software programs in the 1990s, which followed from the evolution of computer technology itself. Legal doctrines evolve in response to developments in new technology, and the patent system exemplifies this operating principle. The patent system secured to innovators the new technological inventions in the Industrial Revolution and it secures to innovators the new technological inventions in the Digital Revolution today. Understanding the history of computer software and its evolving protections under the IP laws confirms that software programs today are inventions that, if they are new, useful, nonobvious and properly disclosed in a patent application, are rightly eligible for patent protection.

Keywords: computer-implemented invention, Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, Borland, Lotus, Benson, Diehr, Bilski, Alappat, patentable subject matter, patent-eligible, Apple, Microsoft, PC Revolution

JEL Classification: O34, K11

Suggested Citation

Mossoff, Adam, A Brief History of Software Patents (and Why They're Valid) (August 7, 2014). Arizona Law Review Syllabus, vol. 56 (2014), 62-77, George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 14-41, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2477462 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2477462

Adam Mossoff (Contact Author)

George Mason University - Antonin Scalia Law School ( email )

3301 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
United States
703-993-9577 (Phone)

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