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>>>>> "Brian" == Brian Cuthie <brian@systemix.com> writes:
Brian> I think you miss the point in the US PTO. It is not to be
Brian> "social" about trade secrets, but rather to protect
Brian> intellectual property that is otherwise too easy to copy.
Brian> In the case of software, copyright will do just fine.
No, copyright will not do just fine. Copyright protects you against
somebody ftp-ing your source code and then selling it as his own, but
it cannot protect a clever algorithm you developed. Copyright
protects the *EXPRESSION* of an idea, not the actual idea itself; this
is what patents are for. The algorithm could be re-coded, and then
(possible) it is not the same expression. This is really an ugly mess
in the courts now, as the law was not developed for active text like a
computer program, but for literary works.
--
-------- "And there came a writing to him from Elijah" [2Ch 21:12] --------
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