1,720,958 research outputs found
The extent of Software Patentability: an international dilemma.
No full textComputer programs (more generally, software) have become an essential part of the contemporary (social, economic, juridical etc.) life. Nevertheless, an agreement regarding the extent of their protection has yet to be reached. \ud
Thanks to some international conventions, and in particular to the “TRIPs Agreement” (Art. 10), a certain kind of uniform protection was granted to software through copyright legislation. At the European level, such harmonization had also been anticipated by the so called “first software directive” (Directive 91/250/EEC, subsequently amended by Directive 93/98/EEC).\ud
After a long international debate, inventions regarding programs per computer and business methods (often reciprocally linked) are not considered inventions and/or are deemed not patentable by the great majority of national legislations and in particular by one of the most important international IP treaties: the “European Patent Convention (EPC)”. The “TRIPs Agreement” is silent on the matter.\ud
However, it was argued from the very start that copyright protection was insufficient and/or inadequate for computer programs. Some scholars proposed that software had not only to be copyrightable but also patentable, while some others submitted that the best solution was to create an “ad hoc” intellectual property right for software-related products. \ud
While the theoretical debate was continuing, and still goes on, computer programs and the computer industry greatly evolved. As a consequence, administrative and judicial case law gradually began to adapt to the new market’s needs: software patents were granted and deemed to be valid. At the end of the Twentieth century, patenting software became common practice and the official guidelines of the most important Patent Offices began to be drawn accordingly. \ud
It is evident that software protection, far from having been confined to copyright (trade secret and trademark) law, increased year after year, while the legislative provisions and the international treaties remained unchanged. The aim of this dissertation is to establish the extent of software patentability in Europe and in the United States, with a brief reference, where necessary, to other legal systems. The dissertation also suggests that a harmonization at the international level with regard to software programs patent protection would be helpful in increasing legal certainty
The Legal Protection of Software in Japan. An Original Model?
No full textSince the early postwar period, Japan began to stand out as a leading global
economic player, which thought of technological advancement as the primary way to catch up with the
other developed economies. In particular, the computer industry was one of the fields in which the
country showed and still shows its enormous potential. Due to the rapid strengthening of the
sector, Japan was amongst the first States to be concerned with the protection of software
programs, an unavoidable complement to its efficient hardware industry. As for the internal market
of software, the Japanese situation had several peculiarities partly owing to its complex
language-and its software industry reflected such elements. Legislative proposals which took into
consideration those uniquely distinctive aspects were submitted to the Parliament. However, under
the pressure of the European Countries and the United States, the Japanese legislator enacted a
regulation similar to the ones adopted by its main commercial partners. Copyright was chosen as the
primary way of protection, while the projects containing a patent-based or a sui generis system
were (at least temporarily) put aside. This notwithstanding said outcome did not imply the complete
abandonment of the idea of software patenting. On the contrary, as such practice became more and
more widespread around the globe, Japan led the way
and the authors try to investigate whether the Japanese judicial interpretations of
the problem continue to show distinctive features
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
National Implementation of International Economic Law: Italy
No full textThe Chapter examines Italy's institutional and legal framework and its implementation of international economic law obligations and norms
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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