The Changing Roles of Patent and Copyright Protection for Software and Communication Technology In the Internet Age

摘要

The roles are changing dramatically for patent and copyright protection as legal mechanisms for protechting software and communication technologies. While copyright protection has traditionally been the primary protection method for software, recent case law in the United States and elsewhere has reduced the scope of protection provided by the copyright laws. At the same time, courts, including the U.S Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for theFederal Circuit, have increasingly aoolwed broader patent protection for these technologies. Given that patents protect the useful, functional features of an invention, as opposed to copyrights protecting only the way a work is tangibly and non-functionally expressed, patents are increasingly becoming the legal protection tool of choice for software and communication technology developers. The explosive groeth of E-Commence further strengthens the trend to use software patents as business assets and to provide a company with significant leverage and defensive rights.