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Written by : Klara Krolikowski |
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Thanks for this great article
Thanks for your comment Miguel Buonamici, have a nice day.
- Klara Krolikowski, Staff Member
you I'm basically a software lawyer in many ways I work with software companies and and help them commercialize their technologies and so an awful lot of what I do is assist companies and thinking about commercializing their intellectual property rights when we think about software there is an array of intellectual property rights that needs to be considered what IP rights cover software well at the heart of it we know that software is code that's written and then compiled that code is a work of authorship for purposes of the Copyright Act in the United States and so software code is subject to copyright protection and in fact the the whole sequence and flow of the user interface and that design that can be subject to copyright protection as well but at the root of the matter is that is that code now what the copyright doesn't protect and the software is the algorithm right the ideas that are there copyright only protects the expression of an idea that is how you've decided to actually code an algorithm but not the algorithm itself so what does protect that how we've done something in the software you know how we've accomplished the functionality well that can be protected in one of two ways it is so long as it's non-public and so long as the software company makes reasonable efforts to protect its confidentiality that code can be considered a trade secret and so that algorithms used the approaches the ideas to solving problems that are embodied in the code those ideas that can be a trade secret and therefore protected against misappropriation under the laws of most states in the United States and there are also several federal statutes that would prevent theft of valuable industrial information so copyrights and trade secrets are important sources of protection for the software and therefore if someone wants to use your software they've got to pay you for the privilege or agree to your licensing terms in the United States we also often provide patent protection for the methodologies that are embodied by the software code it is a little bit harder to obtain that protection than it once was but the methodologies can be subject to patent protection and so the software can be so and if that is the case the owner of the patent can prevent can exclude others from practicing that same method this is why it is so valuable for software companies if they solve an important problem in code and if they can obtain patent protection over the manner in which they've solved the problem and other competitors can be prevented from entering the space unless they solve the problem in another way using different algorithms different ideas than what subject to the patent protection so software can be covered by copyright can be subject to trade secret protection and in the United States can be subject to some patent protection related to the methodologies that are embodied in the code you
Thanks kandungan3 your participation is very much appreciated
- Klara Krolikowski
About the author
I've studied sociology of marriage at University of California, Riverside in Riverside and I am an expert in atheism (outline) and religious humanism. I usually feel bored. My previous job was community welfare worker I held this position for 29 years, I love talking about chess and hacky sack. Huge fan of Thomas Jefferson I practice snowboarding and collect sports cards.
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