software Archives - King & Wood Mallesons Pulse

Artifex Software v Hancom: Guidance from US District Court on enforcement of open source software licences

30 May 2017

Open source software is regularly used as a way of leveraging the collective knowledge of the software development community by allowing anyone to improve and contribute to the code, provided they ‘pay it forward’ and allow their improved code to be used by the community.

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How many codes must a man walk down? Coding and copyright cross paths in the FCA

6 March 2017

By James MacLeod

For most of us, our exposure to software code is limited to the Matrix and those terrifying moments when you accidentally open Terminal on your Mac.

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Big data, big risk – investing in a “largely theoretical” industry

24 February 2017

By Priscilla Hejtmanek

Between 31 May 2012 and 26 March 2013, an Australian husband and wife (Mr and Ms Vinson), through their self-managed superannuation funds, invested $1,250,000 and $1,625,000 respectively in a company that never earned any operating revenue.

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Productivity Commission’s final report pulls no punches on patents

21 December 2016

By David Fixler

Yesterday the Productivity Commission published its final report on Australia’s IP system.

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Aristocrat v Global Gaming – it’s all fun and games until someone infringes a trade mark

14 April 2016

By Katie Dillon

The Federal Court’s decision in Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd v Global Gaming Supplies Pty Ltd [2016] FCAFC marks the end* of a long-running dispute between the Aristocrat Technologies group and Global Gaming Supplies, Impact Gaming and Tonia Enterprises.

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500 versions of software – when is a new version of software original and when does copyright subsist?

15 March 2016

By Anna Spies

The Full Court, in its recent decision JR Consulting & Drafting Pty Limited v Cummings [2016] FCAFC 20 tackled some difficult questions of subsistence of copyright and originality.

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Unanimous Full Court dismisses Research Affiliates’ appeal

10 November 2014

By James Ellsmore

In a decision handed down this afternoon, the Full Court has unanimously dismissed an appeal by Research Affiliates LLC from a decision of Justice Emmett in 2013 (summary here).

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E-tail & the details: consumer guarantees & overseas e-tailers

9 September 2014

By Damien MacRae

Do consumer guarantees apply to the supply of goods by companies overseas? This question has been raised by a new case brought by the ACCC.

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A black and white ban on software patents in NZ? Not ‘as such’…

5 September 2013

By Tom Zagami

Last week, proposed amendments to the Patents Act (NZ) excluding computer programs (software) from patentable subject matter met with overwhelming approval.

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