Unveiling the Domain Conflict – FOSS vs. IPR

Dr. Anurika Vaish, Dr. Shveta Singh, Mr. Abhishek Vaish

In the present times the most talked about issues in the knowledge driven economic system are Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) & Intellectual Property Right (IPR), both of which exist at poles apart. The question that prevails that is about the relevance of the either and that of the dominance of each one. The paper tries to probe into issues of general and specific relevance of FOSS and IPR as suppliers of certain set of utility and benefit to the user. It will also check the validity of the claim of FOSS and it licensing procedure comparing it with the user ship obligations of IPR protected products and services. The premise to the paper is that both FOSS and IPR have to exist and compliment each other ensuring a strong presence of resources in the public and private domain. The paper would certainly work on the area to validate the existence of conflict between the FOSS and IPR, or it is a mere false caution raised by groups pursuing either cause. Finally the paper would propose to demarcate the areas of dominance of FOSS and IPR and prove the utility at the socio-economic front.

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