A multinational computer company with a subsidiary here has adopted a new approach in the fight against software piracy - funding academic scholarships. Novell Inc, one of the world's leading network developers/suppliers, yesterday announced a $25,000 (£17,000) Fulbright Scholarship available to an Irish law graduate, solicitor or barrister.

The funding is for postgraduate study in the US of copyright, patent and trademark law relating to computer software and other emerging technologies.

US computer companies in particular have for some years expressed criticism and concern about software piracy here. They claim that disks containing computer software products are regularly duplicated and distributed, both within organisations but also as bootlegged copies for sale.

The scholarship was announced last night by Dr Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Novell Inc. He said that while Ireland had successfully attracted multinational investment in software development, it lacked the expertise in copyright law, specifically in the areas of software piracy and protection of new technologies.

It made sense, Dr Schmidt said, to complement Ireland's developing software industry "with state-of-the-art legal expertise. As a way to underscore the urgency of the issue, that Novell Ireland will underwrite a Fulbright exchange for the 1999/2000 period".