In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank and its denial of Google’s petition for certiorari in the Oracle software copyright case, new uncertainties exist about the roles that patent, copyright, and other forms of IP are and should be playing in the legal protection of computer software.
The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, in conjunction with the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, hosted a symposium on April 14-15, 2016, in Berkeley, to consider the implications of the Alice and Oracle decisions, among others, on the software industry. It brought together leading scholars in both law and economics, industry representatives, and practicing lawyers who considered what the courts are getting right and wrong and how intellectual property law ought to evolve to do a better job for the industry and the public that so depends on software these days.
The symposium included sessions on the roles of patents, copyrights and trade secrecy. Also featured was empirical research on the state of the software industry and on the evolving strategies on which software developers rely to protect their innovations.
UC Berkeley School of Law certifies that this activity has been approved by the State Bar of California for 13.25 general hours of Continuing Legal Education credit (6.50 hours for Thursday, April 14 and 6.75 hours for Friday, April 15).