This document discusses different mechanisms for intellectual property protection, including copyright, patent, and trade secrecy laws. Copyright protects the expression of ideas but not the ideas themselves. It applies to source and object codes but there are issues around modifications. Trade secrecy laws allow companies to keep information secret to maintain a competitive edge, such as by using non-disclosure agreements. Trade secrecy was more applicable during Bingo's software development but not once the software was released. Patent provides the strongest protection by giving inventors exclusive rights over novel and non-obvious inventions.

1. Copyright Vs Patent and Trade Secrecy Law
Dr. Varun Kumar
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2. Outlines
1 Copyright versus Patent Laws
2 Trade Secrecy Laws
3 Patent Protection
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3. Copyright versus Patent Laws
Copyright versus Patent Laws
⇒ Consider the Bingo scenario where by PPOS copies BOS and sells it
for cheaper.
⇒ PPOS is able to do that because its development costs were lower.
⇒ It also seems unfair that PPOS used BOS without paying.
Q What is the solution to this problem?
⇒ Bingo should take a legal action.
Exclusive right to its software→ Copyright and Patent law
⇒ There are currently three mechanisms to deal with such scenarios
1 Copyright
2 Trade secrecy
3 Patent
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4. Copyright
⇒ Copyright is a form of ownership which excludes others.
For a limited amount of time
From copying without permission
⇒ Only expression of an idea, and not the idea, can be copyrighted.
⇒ There is often a fine distinction between the two.
Expression of an idea
General idea
⇒ In computing, both source and object codes can be the part of
copyright → expressions of ideas.
⇒ There are problematic issues which arise in
1 Computing field
2 Non-computing field
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5. Continued–
Inflamable questions related to copyright
⇒ It is relatively simple to make minor change
To a piece of software → Making it into a new application.
⇒ The copyright addresses ????
Only apply to the old version
New version that contains the old code?
⇒ Are copyright owner required to re-apply every time a new piece of
code is added?
⇒ This has lead to many course cases.
⇒ It has been suggested that the literary analogy is not suitable for
dealing with software copyright.
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6. Trade Secrecy Laws
⇒ Laws governing trade secrecy vary from country to country.
⇒ The central idea is to grant companies the right to keep certain kinds
of information secret.
⇒ The aim is for allowing them to keep a competitive edge.
⇒ The laws were not designed with computer technology in mind.
Piece of information to be considered trade secret
⇒ It is novel.
⇒ Represents an economic investment to the claimant.
⇒ Have involved some effort in development.
⇒ The claimant has made some effort to keep it secret.
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7. Continued–
⇒ Trade secrecy laws can be applied to software.
⇒ This is usually done using non-disclosure clauses.
⇒ Employees sign an agreement
Not reveal secrets learned at work even after they have left.
⇒ The agreement does not apply to generic information in the area.
⇒ Another application of this trade secrecy law → licensing agreements.
⇒ Software is licensed out and not sold
(a) Only the object code is given to the user.
(b) Source code is not given to the user.
⇒ The software company can do all the modification to suit the client
and still retain control.
⇒ The source code is in effect a trade secret.
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8. Continued–
⇒ In Bingos case, trade secrecy would have helped.
⇒ Non-disclosure agreements would prevent employee from giving away
important secrets even after they left.
⇒ This might only be useful during development.
⇒ Once BOS is released, it is more difficult to control.
⇒ General principles are
⇒ BOS is trying to sell or license the software.
⇒ Which was not hidden.
⇒ Trade secrecy works for specialized be spoke software but is poor for
general purpose software.
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