The innovation-model in the free/open source software (FOSS) domain differs fundamentally from the innovation-model in the proprietary software domain. Many FOSS advocates claim that opportunities for software patenting, which have recently been expanded in some countries and are used primarily...

This paper describes the history and the commonly used software licensing terms of the free software and open source movements. It explains the GPL and discusses attempts to enforce the GPL. The GPL is a revolutionary copyright license that has allowed software developers to use existing law to...

Open source collaborations are increasingly among commercial firms whose interest is profit. Why would profit-motivated firms voluntarily share code? One reason is that cost reductions can outweigh increases in rivalry. This is especially persuasive when the contributors make complementary...

In this paper I study how innovation investment in a software duopoly is affected by the fact that one of the firms is, or might become Open Source. Firms can either be proprietary source (PS) or open source (OS) and have different initial technological levels. An OS firm is a for profit...

The economic characteristics of software and transaction costs explain, why closed source and open source software co-exist. It is about the efficient use of a non- and anti-scarce resource. But because of ex-post transaction costs that lead to information asymmetries, some property rights...

This paper considers key intellectual property issues arising in the context of escalating nanotechnology patents. Patent thickets, a problematic aspect of patenting essential nanotechnology research, are examined in the first part of this paper, together with a related discussion on patent...

The presence of an open source software community has provided firms with a non-monetary compensation dimension: the firm can substitute wages for the flexibility it gives its programmers to participate in open source projects. The problem for the software firm is to determine the optimal extent...

The access to drugs and development of new drugs to what are called as neglected diseases in developing nations is a major issue. To what extent intellectual property rights (IPRS) facilitate or hinder this is a controversial issue. The harmonization of global IP regime under TRIPS norms has...

The proper scope of patent protection for biotechnology discoveries has been the source of longstanding debate among legal scholars, research scientists, and industry executives. A major predicament of the system is that it gnaws away at further innovation and creativity because of its...

Geocomputation, with its necessary focus on software development and methods innovation, has enjoyed a close relationship with free and open source software communities. These extend from communities providing the numerical infrastructure for computation, such as BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra...