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UiB-PennState Seminar on Intellectual Property Law

The Faculty of Law, University of Bergen would like to welcome you to a seminar on Intellectual Property Law in collaboration with PennState Law on the 6th and 7th of March 2017.

Bilde av inngangspartiet til Dragefjellet.
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Universitetet i Bergen

Hovedinnhold

The Faculty of Law, University of Bergen would like to welcome you to a seminar on Intellectual Property Law in collaboration with PennState Law on the 6th and 7th of March 2017.

The topic of the first day is Copyright Law, more specifically the right of communication and the right of dissemination (including the «making available right») as it has been adopted in Europe and the U.S, respectively. 

The topic of the second day is Patent Law, more specifically the patenting of information technology («software patents») in Europe and the U.S.

All interested parties are welcome.

6th March – The right of communication and the right of dissemination in Europe and the U.S. Copyright Law.

The right to communicate to the public, established by the InfoSoc Directive in 2001, is arguably the most important economic right granted to copyright holders by the EU copyright law. 

As a result of the implantation in national legislation, several cases regarding the interpretation of the communication right have been brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union. 

In particular, the court has developed a «new public»-criterion that raises several questions regarding the scope of the copyright protection in cases where copyrighted works are retransmitted (for example by hotels) or linked to on the Internet.

The U.S. Copyright law has a different approach both when it comes to the right of dissemination and the “making available right”. This will be compared to the EU-approach.

  • 10.00: «The right of communication to the public according to the InfoSoc Directive Article 3, including the «making available right»  – a European perspective». Associate Professor Dr. jur. Knut Martin Tande, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen
  • 11:00: «The right of dissemination, including the «making available right» in U.S. Copyright Law». Professor Geoff Scott, PennState Law. Karen Maull, PennState Small College of Business
  • 12:30   Lunch
  • 13:30   Comments

                   Discussion

7th March – Patenting information technology in Europe and the U.S.

The patenting of information technology has been among patent law’s most debated topics for the last decades. 

In Europe, the discussion has revolved around the exception for «programs for computers … as such» in Article 52 (2) EPC, and to what extent the requirement for a technical character prohibits the patenting of information technology. Traditionally, information technology inventions has been required to control the central functions in the computer, such as the functions in the computer’s operating system. Subsequent practice from the EPO Boards of Appeal, however, assumes that the implementation of a function on a computer can in itself  support patentability, regardless of what the computer achieves.

U.S. law on the patenting of information technology, on the other hand, has traditionally been more lenient than its European counterpart. For example, it allowed patents on computer-implemented business methods. Following the Supreme Court judgments in Bilski v. Kappos and Alice v. CLS Bank, however, U.S. law on the patenting of information technology has taken a more restrictive turn. It could therefore be argued that U.S. law is moving towards the European approach on patenting information technology. 

During the seminar, we will, among other things, discuss the methodology when assessing information technology inventions (i.e. EPOs «any hardware approach» v. the U.S. Mayo/Alice-approach), the patentability requirements for computer-implemented business methods and the patentability of algorithms and data structures.

  • 10.00  «Patenting information technology in Europe»Associate professor PhD Torger Kielland, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen
  • 11:00 «Patenting information technology in the U.S.»Professor Dan Cahoy, Smeal College of Business and PennState Law
  • 12:30  Lunch
  • 13:30  Comments, Dr. juris Are Stenvik, Partner BA-HR Law Firm

                  Discussion