LEGAL CHALLENGES IN OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE AND IPR

AUTHOR – AMBRESH KUMAR PATEL* & C.S. MONICA SURI**

* STUDENT AT AMITY LAW SCHOOL, NOIDA

** ASST. PROFESSOR (GRADE-III) AT AMITY LAW SCHOOL, NOIDA

BEST CITATION – AMBRESH KUMAR PATEL & C.S. MONICA SURI, LEGAL CHALLENGES IN OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE AND IPR, ILE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CORPORATE LAW REVIEW, 4 (1) OF 2025, PG. 16-22, APIS – 3920 – 0008 | ISSN – 2583–6153.

ABSTRACT

The rapid growth of open-source software (OSS) has revolutionized the technology landscape, offered immense collaboration opportunities and fostering innovation. But there are a lot of IP issues with OSS because of how open it is. Considerations regarding copyright protection, licensing intricacies, patent rights, and guaranteeing conformity with diverse IP laws across nations are among these obstacles. The ownership and allocation of rights becomes more complicated in open-source projects due to the frequent involvement of different contributors. There are concerns over the enforceability of intellectual property rights when proprietary software and open-source contributions come together. To help open-source software developers navigate the intellectual property (IP) hurdles they encounter, this article looks at the laws that regulate these issues and offers advice on how to keep the OSS community’s spirit of transparency and cooperation alive while protecting IP rights.

KEYWORDS – Software development, source code, licensing methods, open-source software, and intellectual property rights