The Legal Protection Of Chinese Software Related To Business Methods In The Framework Of TRIPS

With the rapid development of E-commerce in the world, the legal protection of Software related to Business Methods (SBM) becomes more and more important, especially when a heated debate arose as to the patent problem of SBM. Large-scale patent application of SBM already began in Europe, USA, Japan and other countries and regions, and mutual coordination is speeding up now. Taiwan also considers employing patent to protect SBM. First National City Bank of New York made 19 related patent applications to the main land of China. However, according to Chinese Patent Law, patent has never been granted to SBM or BM. This paper attempts to discuss the problem of legal protection of SBM under such international circumstances.This paper comprises six parts. Part â…  proposes the problem of legal protection of SBM aroused by E-commerce. Part â…¡ and Part â…¢ make an analysis of the contents of the copyright protection model and commercial secret protection model, and discuss the shortcomings and limitations of copyright model and commercial secret model, protecting SBM in comparison with TRIPS. Part â…£ argues the necessity of adopting patent model to protect SBM. Then the feasibility is discussed of granting patent to SBM in China and investigations are mainly carried out into the shortcomings of patent model protectingSBM. Part â…¤ considers the legal choice for protecting SMB in the era of WTO. At last the author draws a conclusion that government, law society and enterprises should coordinate with each other to solve the patent problem as soon as possible. They also ought to provide effective protection to SBM with various legal protection models to quicken the pace of progress of Chinese e-commerce on the basis of independent intellectual property rights.