The IPR-based software life cycle

The final step is the IPR-based Software Life Cycle sketched in Figure 5 that takes all aspects of IPR into account during software development. For each phase the questions now become:

• Does this phase violate copyrights of others? If so, remove those violations.
• Does this phase infringe patents? If so, negotiate a license with the patent holder or take technical measures to avoid the infringements.
• Does this phase generate valuable knowledge? If so, consider the following three options:
  • Keep the knowledge secret and take appropriate legal or technical measures to achieve this.
  • Establish copyrights on this knowledge.
  • File patent applications for this knowledge.

These questions form a comprehensive description of the IPR policy one would expect of the biggest, multi-national, software development organizations.