Revision with unchanged content. This book explores the reform of intellectual property regulation policies with respect to computer software within two advanced industrial nations after 1980. A comparative case analysis of the United States and Japan provides insight as to how advanced industrial nations have responded to market forces, competing private interests, and international pressure for policy harmonization in the construction and implementation of intellectual property regulation reforms. This study shows that ideological and structural arrangements of state institutions have influenced the extent of liberalization in intellectual property policy, and the preservation of equilibrium between individual rights and public interests in the establishment of intellectual property. sakriti opis