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Software Patents

by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Jan 11, 2010 09:53 AM
Software patents are a potent threat to both open standards as well as FOSS. While in India, pure software patents (i.e., a patent over a "computer programme per se") are not allowed, still software patents are to be reckoned with. The draft patent manual prepared by the Patent Office in 2008 seemingly goes against section 3(k) of the Patents Act, and allows partially for software patents. Further, the Patent Office often incorrectly grants software patents, even though the same is prohibited by the law. We have started a wiki-based project to collect all such examples of incorrectly granted software patents.
Time Out Bengaluru - Software Patenting — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Jan 16, 2013 06:39 AM
An article by Akhila Seetharaman published as a precursor to the national public meeting on software patents held on 4th in Bangalore.
Second International e-Governance Conference — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Dec 11, 2012 10:50 AM
The second international conference on governance and electronics which is held under the motto "Together Toward Digital Inclusion" is organized by the National Committee for Corporate Governance Electronic Iraq and the United Nations Development Programme at Rashid Hotel in Baghdad from December 2-3, 2012. The event aims to review the achievements of the program e-governance Iraqi national, and discuss the challenges of applying e-governance as a tool to achieve public sector reform and digital inclusion.
PDF Format — by admin — last modified Aug 23, 2011 03:06 AM
Oo.org Format — by admin — last modified Aug 23, 2011 03:06 AM
MS Format — by admin — last modified Aug 23, 2011 03:07 AM
Comments on the draft National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 24, 2011 06:32 AM
A draft of the 'National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy', which some hope will be the open data policy of India, was made available for public comments in early May. This is what the Centre for Internet and Society submitted.
CIS Comments on the Interoperability Framework for e-Governance (Phase I) — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified May 22, 2013 10:48 AM
In November 2010, the Central Government released the Draft 0.6 of the Technical Standards for the Interoperability Framework for e-Governance (Phase I), requesting comments by January 27, 2011. Here are the comments that CIS submitted.
CIS Submission on Draft Patent Manual 2010 — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified May 29, 2014 06:47 AM
The patent office has released a revised version of the Draft Manual of Patent Practice and Procedure. Section 8.03.06.10 of the Manual deals with patenting of computer programmes. CIS is happy to note the many improvements in this draft of the Manual from the previous version. CIS made its submission along with a few suggestions that it thinks would make the document even better.
Seminar on Software Patent and the Commons — by Prasad Krishna — last modified Oct 23, 2011 02:22 PM
A pre-grant opposition has been filed against a software patent application filed in the patent office by Certicom, a wholly owned subsidiary of Research in Motion (RIM), manufacturers of Blackberry. The opposition was filed on August 31, 2010 by the Software Freedom Law Centre which has recently expanded its operations to India. This exciting development was announced by Mishi Choudhary from SFLC on the lines of the seminar on “Software Patents and the Commons” organised on 1 September 2010 in Delhi jointly by SFLC, the Centre for Internet and Society, the Society for Knowledge Commons and Red Hat. Filing more such oppositions to software patents in India was in the pipeline and this is just the beginning of a movement to take on monopolisation of knowledge and ideas through patenting software, the organisers said.
Research Project on Open Video in India — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 02:51 AM
Open Video Alliance and the Centre for Internet and Society are calling for researchers for a project on open video in India, its potentials, limitations, and recommendations on policy interventions.
CPOV : Wikipedia Research Initiative — by Nishant Shah — last modified Aug 23, 2011 02:52 AM
The Second event, towards building the Critical Point of View Reader on Wikipedia, brings a range of scholars, practitioners, theorists and activists to critically reflect on the state of Wikipedia in our contemporary Information Societies. Organised in Amsterdam, Netherlands, by the Institute of Network Cultures, in collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, the event builds on the debates and discussions initiated at the WikiWars that launched off the knowledge network in Bangalore in January 2010. Follow the Live Tweets at #CPOV
Arguments Against Software Patents in India — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Mar 13, 2012 10:43 AM
CIS believes that software patents are harmful for the software industry and for consumers. In this post, Pranesh Prakash looks at the philosophical, legal and practical reasons for holding such a position in India. This is a slightly modified version of a presentation made by Pranesh Prakash at the iTechLaw conference in Bangalore on February 5, 2010, as part of a panel discussing software patents in India, the United States, and the European Union.
Openness, Videos, Impressions — by Nishant Shah — last modified Sep 22, 2011 12:23 PM
The one day Open Video Summit organised by the Centre for Internet & Society, iCommons, Open Video Alliance, and Magic Lantern, to bring together a range of stakeholders to discuss the possibilities, potentials, mechanics and politics of Open Video. Nishant Shah, who participated in the conversations, was invited to summarise the impressions and ideas that ensued in the day.
Open Standards Workshop at IGF '09 — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 02:54 AM
The Centre for Internet and Society co-organized a workshop on 'Open Standards: A Rights-Based Framework' at the fourth Internet Governance Forum, at Sharm el-Sheikh. The panel was chaired by Aslam Raffee of Sun Microsystems and the panellists were Sir Tim Berners-Lee of W3C, Renu Budhiraja of India's DIT, Sunil Abraham of CIS, Steve Mutkoski of Microsoft, and Rishab Ghosh of UNU-MERIT.
Second Response to Draft National Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Jul 07, 2009 04:49 PM
Another draft (labelled "version 2", dated May 26, 2009) of the draft national policy on open standards for e-governance was made available to Fosscomm, while many software companies were speaking out against NASSCOM's position on the policy. CIS drafted a second response addressing both the allegations against NASSCOM as well as the few shortcomings we perceive in the draft policy.
Letter on South Africa's IPRs from Publicly Financed R&D Regulations — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 04, 2011 04:42 AM
Being interested in legislations in developing nations styled after the United States' Bayh-Dole Act, CIS responded to the call issued by the South African Department of Science and Technology for comments to the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Regulations.
An Interview With Arjen Kamphuis — by Sanchia de Souza — last modified Aug 18, 2011 05:01 AM
In an email interview with the Centre for Internet and Society, Dutch open source activist Arjen Kamphuis discussed his experience of successfully working with the government for a policy mandating open standards for all government IT in the Netherlands.
Lecture by Eben Moglen and Mishi Choudhary — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 02:55 AM
The Software Freedom Law Center, National Law School, and the Centre for Internet and Society organised a lecture by Mishi Choudhary and Eben Moglen for students of NLS on Saturday, December 13, 2008.
Workshop on Reforming the International ICT Standardization System — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 02:56 AM
On Day 4, the last day, of the Internet Governance Forum, a workshop was conducted by the Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards on the reforming the international ICT standardisation system. The panellists were Bob Jolliffe of Freedom to Innovate South Africa, Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society, Ashish Gautam of IBM India, and Aslam Raffee, Chairperson of the Government IT Officers' Council, OSS Working Group, Republic of South Africa, who moderated the session.
Report on Open Standards for GISW2008 — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Jan 05, 2009 06:52 AM
In this report, Sunil Abraham lays out the importance and the policy implications of Open Standards.
DCOS Agreement on Procurement — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 02:58 AM
On December 6, 2008, at the closing of the third Internet Governance Forum in Hyderabad, India, the Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS), of which the Centre for Internet and Society is a member, released an agreement entitled the "Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS) Agreement on Procurement in Support of Interoperability and Open Standards".
Report on Open Standards for GISW 2008 — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 02:57 AM
A report on Open Standards prepared by Sunil Abraham, for the Global Information Society Watch 2008. As on their site, GISWatch focuses on monitoring progress made towards implementing the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) action agenda and other international and national commitments related to information and communications. It also provides analytical overviews of institutions involved in implementation.
The National Public Meeting on Software Patents — by Pranesh Prakash — last modified Aug 23, 2011 03:02 AM
On Saturday, October 4, 2008, the Centre for Internet and Society, with the support of eighteen other organization, held a meeting on the National Public Meeting on Software Patents in the United Theological College campus. The aim of the event was to explore various issues surrounding software patents, especially from the perspective of the draft Patent Manual.
Response to the Draft National Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance — by Sunil Abraham — last modified Aug 23, 2011 03:05 AM
Pranesh Prakash, Programme Manager at the Centre for Internet and Society, authored a response to the draft Open Standards Policy document published by the National Informatics Centre, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
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