Fisher, MJ;
(2020)
Software-related Inventions.
In: Aplin, T, (ed.)
Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Digital Technologies.
(pp. 277-301).
Edward Elgar: UK.
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Abstract
On 29 November 1972, Atari Inc., a newly incorporated Californian firm, announced the release of its first video arcade game: PONG.1 The game required the player to control a simulated table tennis paddle, moving it vertically across the screen to intercept and return a ball to an opponent (either one that is computer-controlled or another person). Although simplistic by today’s standards, it was a roaring success, arguably laying the foundations for a multibillion dollar gaming industry and catapulting Atari to massive (albeit shortlived) riches.2 As a technical creation, the PONG arcade cabinet was fascinating. The soul of the machine was held in the connection and arrangement of 66 chips of varying types.3 The components of its experience – graphics, sounds and gameplay – were all a product of hardware: an example of transistor–transistor logic reliant upon the components’ relative configuration and the power supplied to them. There was no software. No writing of code. No instructions issued to the components other than by the machine’s physical controls. That an identical result can now be replicated in software – that a suitably programmed, off the shelf computer can emulate this feat of wiring and solder – is testament to the boundaries that computer programs can cross. It also highlights the core of the problem with the law’s understanding and treatment of this subject matter within the confines of intellectual property: software possesses a unique duality. It is, as Nack explains, ‘both the text description of a machine and the “machine” itself . . . no special physical device is needed to implement the algorithm – a standard computer will suffice’.4
| Type: | Book chapter |
|---|---|
| Title: | Software-related Inventions |
| ISBN: | 9781785368332 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.4337/9781785368349.00021 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785368349.00021 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Laws |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10043415 |
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