Software Patent Institute (established 1992 in Ann Arbor) is an American non-profit corporation established to assist in the correct assignment of

software patent A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, libraries, user interface, or algorithm. Background A patent is a set of exclusionary rights granted by a state to a patent holder for a limited period of time, u ...

. It originally had the name ''

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Software Patent Institute'', as it was established by the Industrial Technology Institute, represented by professor

Bernard Galler Bernard A. Galler ( in Chicago – in Ann Arbor, Michigan) was an American mathematician and computer scientist at the University of Michigan who was involved in the development of large-scale operating systems and computer languages includi ...

. It maintains a ''Database of

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

technologies'', since 1995 open to the public, covering the

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

software industry The software industry includes businesses for development, maintenance and publication of software that are using different business models, mainly either "license/maintenance based" (on-premises) or "Cloud based" (such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, MBa ...

and provides courses, the ''SPI reporter'' bulletin, and other educational materials. The institute was disputed on its arrival (in particular by

League for Programming Freedom League for Programming Freedom (LPF) was founded in 1989 by Richard Stallman to unite free software developers as well as developers of proprietary software to fight against software patents and the extension of the scope of copyright. Their l ...

Simson Garfinkel Simson L. Garfinkel (born 1965) is Senior Data Scientist at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He was formerly the US Census Bureau's Senior Computer Scientist for Confidentiality and Data Access. Previously, he was a computer scientist at ...

, Richard M. Stallman and Mitchell Kapor
Why patents are bad for software
, in ''Issues in science and technology'', fall 1991 but has nevertheless received financial support from Usenix as well as commercial software companies as Oracle Corporation, IBM,

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

. Its executive director is Roland J. Cole, based in Indianapolis.

References

{{Authority control Institutes based in the United States Non-profit technology Organizations established in 1992 University of Michigan Information technology organizations based in North America Software patent law Intellectual property organizations 1992 establishments in Michigan Organizations based in Ann Arbor, Michigan