In what is seen as laudable by open source developers and as downright terror by monopolistic software companies, the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union has held that ideas and concepts behind computer programs are not entitled to copyright protection. The verdict opens a floodgate for complementary and competing software to challenge market leaders. The ruling was given in a case over U.S. computer company SAS Institute accusing U.K. firm World Programming Ltd over copying programs of SAS and infringing copyrights.
The court held that both source code and object code is protected by copyright law, but ideas and principles behind a software program is not subject to copyright. The court said, “To accept that the functionality of a computer programme and the programming language can be protected by copyright would amount to making it possible to monopolise ideas, to the detriment of technological progress and industrial development.”
Though the judgment came in relation to a dispute over software companies, the inherent principle can be extended to include the flow of development in almost any industry sector. It allows companies to create competing products without breaching copyright rules.
Miranda Cole, a partner at the law firm of Covington & Burling in Brussels told Reuters: “The court ruling has significant implications for interoperability because it confirms that software producers can use syntax, keywords and commands used in third party software that they observe, to ensure that their own software is interoperable. … Virtually everything we do these days, including design and engineering, are heavily software-based, so this ruling has ramifications across a broad swath of the economy.”
A Clifford Chance partner, Thomas Vinje, who is also a spokesman for ECIS the information technology lobby group said, “The Court of Justice has acted in favour of innovation, consumers and fair competition, by ensuring that copyright protection in computer programs is appropriately balanced and that competitive and interoperable computer programs can continue to be developed without threat of legal liability.”
The ruling is in line with previous ruling in the EU including the 2010 finding of the Court of England and Wales on the issue.
The ECJ case was C-406/10, SAS Institute vs World Programming Ltd.
