In November 2011, the Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Yves Bot, issued an influential but non-binding legal opinion, positing that the functional aspects of computer programs should not be protected under copyright law. To do so would be against the interests of fair dealing, by preventing decompilation and reverse engineering, among other […]
Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Yves Bot’s opinion at the end of last year, on SAS Institute Inc. v. World Programming Ltd., was based on the High Court of England and Wales’ preliminary judgment for the same case. Issued on 29 November 2011, Adv.-Gen. Bot focused on specific provisions of Directives 91/250/EEC […]
Robert Dewald is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School On May 12, 2010 the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) responded to several questions posed by the President of the EPO, Ms Alison Brimelow, regarding the patentability of computer programs in Europe. The resounding answer to these questions, provided […]