The advent of computer technology has changed the spectrum of knowledge creation across the globe. The computer technology consisting of hardware and software elements has added new dimensions in each and every quarter of technologies such as the manufacturing and production, communications and transportation, financial services, trade and businesses, and administration and governance of the society. Software programs, hardware designs and circuit-layouts are the bedrocks of the computer technology. Software programs may be in any form - algorithms, coded instructions, flow charts, recorded tapes or diskettes, magnetic records which are readable machines. They can be open source codes or objective codes.

New ideas are not protected under the law of intellectual property rights whereas expressions are protected. New software programs are developed as expressions of ideas with the help of alphanumerical manipulations. A lot of hard work is involved in the process of manipulation of existing alphanumericals in order to achieve the desired results. Business houses invest huge sum of money in developing these software programs. They expect to receive returns upon their investments by commercialization of the newly developed software programs. They seek protection for their programs and exclude other from using them unauthorized. The copyright law specifically protects the computer programs by considering them as mathematical expressions and compilations. They are not simple mathematical compilations. A significant amount of technical knowledge, expertise and skills are required to arrange the algorithms and codes in a logical way to process the information and result in expected outcomes. The success of the program depends upon the intellectual capital and technical expertise of an individual.

As such, the argument that the software programs are mere mathematical compilations does not stand good. On the other hand, use of software programs results in quality and faster output. Some of the software programs are used as 'drivers' of machines and they form an integral part of the machines. They argue for grant of patents for software programs. The US Supreme Court's landmark judgment in Dimond vs Diehr has changed the approach to the software programs. The judiciary has accepted the grant of patents to software programs.

Article 27 of the TRIPS Agreement enables the grant of patents to technological innovations. The patent claim should possess technical features irrespective of whether accompanied by the non-technical features or not. The outcome should be new in the field of technology and should not be obvious. The software programs do not satisfy the standard tests - novelty, non-obviousness and industrial applications. The US Judiciary has suggested to have separate tests for software programs to qualify for the grant of patents. Now the law in US is almost settled and for software programs which have industrial applications are granted with the patents, whereas in Europe it is volatile. Initially, they were inclined to follow the path laid down by the US Court and initiated reforms to the patent law to include the software patents. However, the European Parliament and the Commission of European Community have rejected the proposal to reform the patent law and to grant patents to software programs. The people supporting the argument pleads that grant of patents to software program will undermine the copyright property, and shall have an adverse impact upon the innovations and lead to a fall in research activities and place the European industry at risk. At the same time, there is an argument supporting the grant of patents to software program that though the software programs do not satisfy the standard tests of grant of patents, they are technological innovations, and the growing number of innovations in software program is a living example of criticism that the grant of patents to software programs decreases innovations.

In India, software programs are specially protected under the copyright law. Though there is a mounting pressure on the government to include the software patents during the amendments of 2005 made to the patent law, the government did not accede to the plea. In Japan, the patents are granted to software programs which have technological contribution and industrial applicability.

The law granting patents to software is still in volatile and fluid state. There is an urgent need to settle the issue. This book is aimed at bringing out various arguments in favour and against the grant of the patents to software and the status of law in different countries across the globe.

Ditesh Kumar in his article, 'Software Patents: Background, Discussion and Illustration of Harm' explains that the US Supreme Court decision in Diamond vs Diehr has changed the scenario of software patents. The law relating to grant of software patents is almost settled in the US. The Indian parliament rejected the amendments to the patent law to allow software patent in 2005. The TRIPS Agreement per se permits the grant of patents to the technological inventions, but, whether the software innovations are technological innovations or not is a question of debate. Some argue that the innovation of software programs requires specialized knowledge and skills and they are more than simple mathematical compilations. The grant of patents to software programs triggers the growth of information technology which plays a dominant role in the economic growth of a country.

A definite solution is required to address the imbroglio and to provide equal opportunities to all sizes of software patents. There is a need to industry standards. The article, 'The Problem of Software Patents in Standards' by Bruce Perens states that the model of calculation and payment of royalties has left unevenness among the software companies resulting in economic dissimilarity and power differences. The WTO promulgated trade treaties have provided principles for international standard organization regarding the open system. The principles include transparency, openness, impartiality, disclosures and consensus etc. The author suggests for framing new legislations to facilitate the licensing of patents on such terms, non-discriminatory terms, royalty-free requirement, reasonable royalty, patent pools, essential and non-essential patent claims etc.

Axel H. Horns in his article, 'The Protection of Software and the Crisis of the Patent System', explicates that the Commission of European Communities, on the directives of the members of EU has tried to harmonize the patent law relating to software patents by defining the meaning and nature of the software patents. There is a debate and divided opinion among the academia and the NGOs about the software innovations, its applications to the industry and their marketability. The author states that the European Parliament Meet in Brussels in 2003 has added fuel to the crisis of patent systems and the debate. The author further emphasizes on the need to standardize systems and the patent law.

The article, 'Innovation and Patents for Software Industry: An Empirical Analysis of the EU and US Cases' by Federico Etro states that innovations encourages research and development activities, improve the standards of technology. European Union is on the verge of completing the process of harmonization of patent system for Computer Implemented Inventions (CII) with the objective of providing proper incentive to the innovation. The author further states that there is a need for stronger support for protection of intellectual property rights, as it encourages innovations, in general, and ICT sector in specific on the basis of EU empirical data. Any additional restrictions on the patentability of CII will discourage investments in the field and tends to affect negatively on the economy in the long run.

The article, 'Software Patents: Innovation or Litigation?' by Linda Levine, Kurt M. Saunders elucidates that the Article 52(1) of the European Patent Convention (EPC) states that the patents may be granted to any inventions which are susceptible to industrial applications, which are new and which involve an inventive steps and explicitly eliminate the programs for computers. The article further states that the complex reality of software patents is explained and understood in two cases - one "Click shopping" (popularly known as Amazon case) and the case of Graphic Interchange Format (GIF).

The Directive of European Convention has called for the harmonization of law relating to software patents. It has raised a hot debate on the issues such as patentability subject matter. The article emphasizes that there is a great need to protect the software patents to facilitate the commercialization of software innovations and provide incentives to the innovators.

Nicolas Jullien, Jean-Benoît Zimmermann in their article, 'New Approaches to Intellectual Property: From Open Software to Knowledge Based Industrial Activities' concludes that neither the copyright law nor the patent law protects the software innovations satisfactorily. The outcome of cases against the IBM in the US and Europe has brought a radical change in the approach and the differences between the hardware and software, source-code and object-code are cleared. The alternative model of protecting the "Open Source Software" by using a new tool called GPL "General Public License" is gaining importance at present but does not satisfy fully as such hybrid licenses are designed. The new way of managing the Intellectual Property is to consider the knowledge as a mutual resource and use it for economic growth by using the potential of distributive skills. The article states that the software industry needs a mix of traditional intellectual protection framework, open source movement, and new standards applicable for software patents.

Scott Elengold in his article, 'An Inquiry into Computer System Patents: Breaking Down the "Software Engineer"' enlightens that the history of the concept of patentability of software shows a gradual tilt towards the grant of protection to the software programs. The patent offices and courts have contributed to the positive approach. The author explains that the software engineer plays different roles such as software programmer, software developer, graphic designer, application architect. And each innovative step is divided and standard tests of patentability are applied thereupon in various cases, the courts have gone beyond the terms 'the software engineer', 'the software programmer' and examined the requirements of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) such as non-obviousness, disclosures, and best mode requirement.

The article, 'Patent Protection for Computer Software Related Inventions' points out that computer software related inventions have penetrated into every field of technologies such as data transmission, methods of encrypting, data communications, vehicle drive control, automation of highways etc. All of them require protection from unauthorized use. The source code of the computer program is protected by copyright and the patent protection is available to features of a new method independent of specific code implementation into protection. In Japan, according to its patent law, the patents are granted to software companies, if they have inventive step. The statutory inventory step has been defined as 'a creation of technical ideas utilizing a law of nature'. Under the European Patent Convention, the patents are granted to software related inventions, if they have technical character and make technical contribution. The economic framework of open-source software is fast changing as it is coexisting with commercial computer software industry.