Keynote: Managing copyright and patent protection for open source bioinformatics
Channel: Common Workflow Language
Date: 2022-03-01

Presenter: James Schiebner

Summary: This presentation considers the applicability of so-called intellectual property rights such as patents and copyright protection to bioinformatics software. Specifically, this presentation focuses on the impact that these rights have on open-source bioinformatics projects within the context of recent decisions determining the scope of patent protection. This presentation then turns to consider how open-source software carries many of the characteristics of a knowledge commons. In particular, this presentation considers how a knowledge commons-based approach to managing open-source software conflicts with many of the conventional approaches to technology transfer. Finally, this presentation concludes by considering what strategies are available to developers to manage the impact of intellectual property rights on open source bioinformatics projects.