Law Protection of Computer Programs in the State of Israel

In: Tirosh. Jewish, Slavic & Oriental Studies, Band 18, S. 206-218

Abstract

Nowadays IT sphere all over the world experiences rapid growth. This situation also refers to the State of Israel that is considered to be one of the leaders in IT-startups and IT sphere in all. The development of IT has a great influence on economy of Israel and its economic development. Application software is usually defined as a main unit in information technologies. Therefore, legal protection of software becomes one of the most important issues regarding IT sphere. Intellectual property law in Israel is mostly based on British intellectual property law. International legislation concerning intellectual property also influences Israeli IP law. As in the majority of countries, in Israel software is considered as an object of copyright law and it is protected in compliance with its provisions. Copyright law is regulated by the Copyright Act passed the Knesset in 2007. The term of protection granted by this Act shall be the life of the author and seventy years after his death. In accordance with the main principle of copyright law, software has been protected since the moment the software was created. That means that software in Israel does not subject to registration or any other procedure of its kind. It is also possible to register a logo and a unique name of software as a trademark, and this can become a substantial addition to the law protection.