IT41-SIP (Social and Professional Issues)

PAMBAYANG DALUBHASAAN NG MARILAO

College of Computer Studies

I. INTRODUCTION
This module covers the items considered a
trace of digital footprints and the issues and
threats experienced by uses when this
information was retrieved. The application of
Module 11 intellectual property rights to software
developers is also part of this module.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY II. OBJECTIVES

1. Identify the intellectual property law and its
LAW implementation to computer source code
2. Discover civil code that provides different
modes of acquiring ownership under
intellectual property rights
3. Compare and contrast the context of
copyright and patent
4. Recommend and justify appropriate law to
be implemented in a given case to provide
sound judgement
5. Apply intellectual property law in a given
scenario

III. LESSON PROPER

THE PROGRAMMER'S SOURCE CODE AND THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

The Programmer's Source Code

 Program – lists of instructions which are then translated into a machine language which the
computers can directly understand
 Computer program – a set of instructions expressed in words, codes, schemes or in any other
form, which is capable, when incorporated in a medium that the computer can read, of causing
the computer to perform or achieve a particular task or result (Sec. 171.4, RA 8293)
 It is normal for a programmer not to share and/or distribute his program or source code.
 A programmer's source code is like a recipe or secret formula or process from which the
computers' execution is anchored.
 Examples:
1. Engr. Sean designed the car which uses a gas-saving device that lessens the gasoline
consumption by 90%, the patent of the said invention belongs to Engr. Sean.
2. An artist makes a painting, books are written by an author, a logo designed by a student,
and programs are written by a programmer, newspaper articles, PowerPoint
presentations, theses, and dissertations. These are all intellectual creations.
 IT41-SIP (Social and Professional Issues)
PAMBAYANG DALUBHASAAN NG MARILAO
College of Computer Studies
THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CODE (RA 8293)
 It contains the most important provisions concerning ICT professionals, including computer and
electronic engineers.
 The intellectual property code contains provisions that protect the rights of authors, inventors,
programmers, and other gifted citizens regarding their intellectual creation.
 Intellectual property rights consist of
a) Copyright and related rights
b) Trademarks and service marks
c) Geographic indications
d) Industrial designs
e) Patents
f) Layout designs
g) Protection of undisclosed information

Sec. 29 First to File Rule. – If two or more persons have made the invention separately and independently
of each other, the right to the patent shall belong to the person who filed an application for such invention,
or where two or more applications are filed for the same invention, to the applicant who has the earliest
filing date or, the earliest priority date. (3rd Sentence Sec. 10 RA No. 165a.)

Most Common Intellectual Property

1. Trademark – any visible sign capable of distinguishing the goods (trademark) or services (service
mark) of an enterprise and shall include a stamped or marked container of goods.
 A trade name means the name or designation identifying or distinguishing an enterprise.
 Trademark infringement – violations involving trademark
 Issue: Can the owner of a registered trademark legally prevent others from using such
trademark if it is a mere abbreviation of a term descriptive of his goods, services, or
business?
2. Copyright – the author's legal ownership of his or her original intellectual creations in the literary
and artistic domains.
 Scope of the copyright is confined to literary and artistic works, which are original
intellectual creations in the literary and artistic domain protected from the moment of
their creation.
 Copyright infringement – violations involving copyright
 Issue: If the National Library grants work copyright protection (copyright certificate of
registration)
3. Patent
 Patentable inventions – refer to any technical solution of a problem in any field of human
activity that is new, involves an inventive step, and is industrially applicable
 Patent infringement - violations involving patent
 Issue: If works are registered and separately and protected by a patent issued by the
Bureau of Patents Trademarks and Technology Transfer ( now Intellectual Property Office)
 IT41-SIP (Social and Professional Issues)
PAMBAYANG DALUBHASAAN NG MARILAO
College of Computer Studies
The Issue on Unfair Competition
 By nature of things, there can be no unfair competition under the law on copyrights although it is
applicable to disputes over the use of trademarks.
 Even a name or phrase incapable of appropriation as a trademark or tradename may, by long and
exclusive use by a business (such that the name or phrase becomes associated with the business
or product in the mind of the purchasing public), entitled to protection against unfair competition.

Are Computer Programs Patentable?

Elements of Patentable Invention:
1. It is a technical solution to a problem in any field of human activity.
2. It must be new.
3. It must involve inventive steps.
4. It must be industrially applicable.

 Considering the above elements, element no. 3 is absent concerning computer programs.
 For instance, the swapping algorithm swap (x,y), which swap or exchange the values of two
parameters x and y; imagine if someone applies for its patent, which means to say, other will be
deprived to use such algorithm for the next 20 years!
 Intellectual Property Law, Section 22 of RA 8293:
Section 22. Non-Patentable Inventions. – The following shall be excluded from patent protection:

22.2 Schemes, rules and methods of performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and
programs for computers;

Section 172. Literary and Artistic Works. – 172.1 Literary and artistic works, hereinafter referred to as
"works," are original intellectual creations in the literary and artistic domain protected from the
moment of their creation and shall include in particular:
a) Books, pamphlets, articles and other writings.
b) Periodicals and newspapers.
c) Lectures, sermons, addresses, dissertations prepared for oral delivery, whether or not reduced
in writing other material form.
d) Letters;
e) Dramatic or dramatico-musical compositions; choreographic works or entertainment in dumb
shows;
f) Musical compositions, with or without words;
g) Works of drawing, painting, architecture, sculpture, engraving, lithography or other works of art;
models or designs for works of art;
h) Original ornamental designs or models for articles of manufacture, whether or not registrable as
an industrial design, and other works of applied art;
i) Illustrations, maps, plans, sketches, charts, and three-dimensional works relative to geography,
topography, architecture, or science;
j) Drawings or plastic works of a scientific or technical character;
 IT41-SIP (Social and Professional Issues)
PAMBAYANG DALUBHASAAN NG MARILAO
College of Computer Studies
k) Photographic works including works produced by a process analogous to photography; lantern
slides;
l) Audio-visual works and cinematographic works and works produced by a process analogous to
cinematography or any process for making audio-visual recordings;
m) Pictorial illustrations and advertisements;
n) Computer programs; and
o) Other literary, scholarly, scientific, and artistic works.

VI. PRACTICE/EXERCISES

Research on cases/crimes in the Philippines that involves digital footprints and Intellectual
property law. It may be featured in a news or magazine show. Discuss in one paragraph. The
second paragraph is your personal note on the issue. Do not forget to cite your sources. Do not
copy articles. Instead, do research.

V. ASSESSMENT
 The link for the assessment will be provided in the LMS.

VI. REFERENCES
 C. Laviña. Social, Ethical, Legal and Professional Issues in Computing, Mindshapers Co., Inc., 2015
 https://students.shu.ac.uk/lits/it/documents/pdf/Digital_Footprint.pdf