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can a student who has invented or made a new programming language register patent on his name?

 
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yesterday my friend asked me, can a student who has invented a new programming language ( like his own compiler, virtual machine ) register a patent on his name for his work ?
 
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Don’t know. It depends on the law where you are. If you can register a patent for a VM, compiler, etc., then a student can seek letters patent for it.

That would depend on the work being original, innovative and not “obvious”. You cannot seek letters patent for a perpetual motion machine, but I don’t think that applies here.
 
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And is the question about whether a student can apply for a patent, as opposed to a professor or a hairdresser? Or is it about whether a programming language can be patented, as opposed to, say, a gearshift mechanism?
 
naved momin
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Campbell Ritchie wrote:
That would depend on the work being original, innovative and not “obvious”.


I am in India, so you mean , language should be made using innovative process and not using old regular text book or reference books method ? is that you mean ?
 
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Microsoft just released their "JavaScript" killer.

I think it's called RealScript ?

Anyway, it's open source and released to the community.

I would suggest that if your friend was to become famous, go that route. He or She is not going to get rich!

WP
 
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Are there any patented programming languages? Patents are intended to protect your intellectual property from use by others so you can profit from it. I would think that is a bad idea when a programming language's success is measured in how many people use it.
 
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was it developed as part of a class, or using the school's computers/network? If so, the school might have a claim to it, just as any code I write at my office belongs to my company, even if I only write it on the weekends/off hours.
 
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That varies from University to University. The rules are complicated, but intellectual property rights at a University might reside with the developer rather than with the institution. A company usually add such a clause to their terms and conditions explicitly.
 
fred rosenberger
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Campbell Ritchie wrote:That varies from University to University. The rules are complicated, but intellectual property rights at a University might reside with the developer rather than with the institution.


Hence my use of the word "might". ;-)

My father was a EE professor at a university for 35+ years. I don't think he retained any IP rights, but I'm also not sure how much of what he developed was strictly through the school, how much was via a special lab he worked at, and how much was him being sort of sub-contracted out to private industry.
 
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I have heard stories about people repeating experiments away from work, so they could patent their ideas.
 
naved momin
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fred rosenberger wrote:was it developed as part of a class, or using the school's computers/network?


yes, it is going to be his final year project (he is in final year of under-graduation), what he was telling me is that only if someone invent a new way of making any modules in the process of making a new language (i.e. new way to make compiler or VM) then he/she can patent it , other wise if any one goes by the method which is documented some where like text-books and many reference books then it can't be patented, so my question is , is that true ? (forget about my country, let's consider the case of U.S.A) is that true in U.S ?
 
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