Citation[]
Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, Patents, Research and Technology (POST PN 76) (Mar. 1, 1996) (full-text).
Overview[]
The full report reviews the current U.K. patent system whereby the state grants a monopoly (for up to 20 years) for exclusive use of an invention in return for the inventor disclosing its details.
On "Information Technology," the full report looks at protection issues for a range of software inventions, including the role of copyright, patenting and open publication in software, icons, procedures and function, databases, and protecting intellectual property on the Information superhighway infrastructure.