- Define copyright, trade secrecy, and patents as they relate to software.
- The owner of a copyright has five (5) principle rights. What are they?
The Copyright Law gives the owner five (5) principles rights. These are the right to reproduce the work done by the author or owner, the right to publicly distribute copies of it, the right to prepare derivative works, the right to publicly display the work and the right to publicly perform the work.
- Discuss the legal protections related to copyright, trade secrecy, and patents. Include an example for each where legal protection has been enforced.
Patents in particular give protection to inventions that are applied for and approved by the patents office. It grant’s the owner an exclusive right thus making anyone who makes, sells or use the product without authorization accountable for infringement. Copyright gives protection to tangible medium for works of authorships which are applied automatically. It prohibits the use, sale and reproduction of software that are similar to an earlier version. Trade secrets on the other hand protect divulging of information that is secret to a company. Source codes are commonly protected by this. (Radcliffe, 2003)
References:
Freibrun, Eric S. (2013). Intellectual Property Rights in Software: What They Are and How the Law Protects Them. Retrieved from http://www.freibrun.com/articles/articl2.htm
Radcliffe, Mark (2003). Patent, Copyright and Trade Secrecy. What is the Difference? Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/29593/Patent_Copyright_and_Trade_Secret_What_s_the_Difference_
