This Article 
   
 Share 
   
 Bibliographic References 
   
 Add to: 
 
Digg
Furl
Spurl
Blink
Simpy
Google
Del.icio.us
Y!MyWeb
 
 Search 
   
April-June 2012 (vol. 34 no. 2)
pp. 88, 86-87
ASCII Text
x 
 
Gerardo Con Diaz, "Ownership and the History of American Computing," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 88, 86-87, April-June, 2012.
 
 
BibTex
x
 
@article{ 10.1109/MAHC.2012.29,
author = {Gerardo Con Diaz},
title = {Ownership and the History of American Computing},
journal ={IEEE Annals of the History of Computing},
volume = {34},
number = {2},
issn = {1058-6180},
year = {2012},
pages = {88, 86-87},
doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MAHC.2012.29},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA},
}
 
 
RefWorks Procite/RefMan/Endnote
x 
 
TY - MGZN
JO - IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
TI - Ownership and the History of American Computing
IS - 2
SN - 1058-6180
SP88, 86
EP87
EPD - 88, 86-87
A1 - Gerardo Con Diaz,
PY - 2012
KW - history of computing
KW - patents
KW - software patents
KW - intellectual property
KW - US Patent and Trademark Office
KW - National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works
KW - CONTU
KW - business history
VL - 34
JA - IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
ER -
 
Gerardo Con Diaz, Yale University
The study of ownership in the history of computing presents a rich opportunity to analyze the interplay between IP and technological development. Although historians of computing usually acknowledge the importance of this area, the broader history of ownership and computing has been generally overlooked. This Think Piece shows how historians of computing can draw from, and contribute to, work on the history of ownership. The author focuses on the period between the 1940s and 1980s, during which the legal frameworks for the ownership of machines and programs that we know today began to develop.

1. Trademarks, the fourth major form of intellectual protection, have been less problematic in the history of computing.
2. See M. Campbell-Kelly, "Not All Bad: An Historical Perspective on Software Patents," Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Rev., vol. 11, no. 191, 2004–2005, pp. 191–248.
3. This Think Piece is based on my upcoming doctoral dissertation, "Regulating a Revolution: Ownership and the History of American Computing, 1940–1981," Dept. of History, Program in the History of Science and Medicine, Yale Univ.
4. For legal historians, this is a time during which strict antitrust enforcement and judicial attacks on the validity of patents discouraged businesses from patenting their inventions. For historians of computing, the same period is central to narratives about technologies that predate the widespread establishment of home computing.
5. P. Samuelson, "The Strange Odyssey of Software Interfaces as IP," Making and Unmaking Intellectual Property: Creative Production in Legal and Cultural Perspective, M. Biagioli, P. Jaszi, and M. Woodmansee eds., Univ. of Chicago Press, 2011, pp. 321–338.
6. For example, see M. Biagioli, P. Jaszi, and M. Woodmansee eds., , Making and Unmaking Intellectual Property: Creative Production in Legal and Cultural Perspective, Univ. of Chicago Press, 2011.
7. For example, see L. Heide, "Facilitating and Restricting a Challenger: Patents and Standards in the Development of the Bull-Knutsen Punched Card System, 1919–1938," Business History, vol. 51, no. 1, 2009, pp. 28–44.

Index Terms:
history of computing, patents, software patents, intellectual property, US Patent and Trademark Office, National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works, CONTU, business history
Citation:
Gerardo Con Diaz, "Ownership and the History of American Computing," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 88, 86-87, April-June 2012, doi:10.1109/MAHC.2012.29
Usage of this product signifies your acceptance of the Terms of Use.