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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] -------- Robert Jay Brown III rj@eli.elilabs.com http://www.elilabs.com 1 847 705-0424 Elijah Laboratories Inc.; 37 South Greenwood Avenue; Palatine, IL 60067-6328 ----- M o d e l i n g t h e M e t h o d s o f t h e M i n d ------