Research Into The Patentability Of Computer Software

With the rapid development of science and technology, the computers are applied more and more widely in the work and life of the people. The industry of computer software has become an important part of the national economy. It is one of the standards to measure the development of the national high-tech. How to provide the more reasonable legal protection of the computer software has been a problem which the legal circle has to face. In most countries of the world and the international treaties concerned, the legal protection of the computer software adopts a system with the copyright law as its main part. However, the computer software is paralleled to the mathematical methods and the rules and methods of intellectual activities that are not protected by the patent law and is not recognized as the object of the patent protection. Actually, the nature of the computer software is of technological characteristics. It has the patentability. It has been protected in the form of patent in the U.S.A and the countries of the European Union.In this thesis, the author discusses the concept of the computer software, the historical and current situation of the patent protection of the computer software.