Can you protect software? The legal maze explained
Listen to the 11th episode of the Reach Out podcast, featuring Giovanni Sorrentino.
About
‘Can you protect software? The legal maze explained’ is the eleventh episode of the T4EU Reach Out podcast. The episode, recorded by the University of Alicante, explores how software can be protected under intellectual property law and why this protection is increasingly relevant in the digital world.
Giovanni Sorrentino, PhD student at the University of Bologna and the University of Alicante, a specialist in new technologies law, digital identity, artificial intelligence, blockchain and metaverse, is the guest. The conversation is moderated by Yasmina Glez Müller, intellectual property and information technology lawyer and project manager.
This episode discusses the legal challenges in software protection, the implications for programmers, entrepreneurs and companies, and the importance of understanding intellectual property rules in a rapidly evolving technological context.
Giovanni Sorrentino also highlights how digital law is adapting to new technological realities, including artificial intelligence, blockchain and virtual environments.
‘If the code is original and it reflects the authors’ choices and their creativity, copyright kicks in automatically and gives them control over copying, modifying and distributing that same code’.
But ‘copyright often is not enough. It does not offer, for example, any protection against a competitor who arrives at the same idea but by an independent route’. That is why Giovanni Sorrentino also recommends combining solutions such as patents, confidentiality agreements and licences.
‘How can we understand what type of software can be patented and what cannot? Here, the main test I usually say, and which is also used by many jurisdictions, is: does the invention provide a technical solution to a technical problem? As we can see, there are two key words here: invention and technical’.
This episode highlights the importance of protecting digital creations and how legal knowledge in intellectual property is fundamental to ensuring safe and sustainable innovation in the digital space.
Listen to the full episode here:
