In many countries, software is protected by copyright either in the source language or in the target language. The basic advantage of copyright protection is its simplicity. It does not require any formalities such as registration or filing of copies in the countries parties to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 151 countries. This means that international copyright protection is automatic, that is, it begins once the work has been created. The copyright holder is protected for a relatively long period of time and generally lasts for the life of the author in addition to 50 years or 70 years (by country) after his death.
The patent must be requested in principle in each country where the inventor wishes to obtain protection. In order to obtain patent protection, the patent application must satisfy formal conditions and objective conditions and the invention must also be disclosed to the public. These conditions may be complex from the legal and technical aspect and often require the use of a legal expert. The duration of protection is also very short compared to the duration of copyright protection, which generally lasts 20 years from the date of filing the application.
So why would a lot want to protect their patent-related inventions? The reasons for this are multiple. Perhaps the most important is that copyright protection covers only expressions and does not extend to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts per se. Copyright protection includes "literary expressions" of software but does not protect the "ideas" on which the software is based and which usually have significant commercial value.
However, patent acquisition and enforcement costs may be prohibitive given the complexity of patent registration requirements. Companies that do not have sufficient financial resources should consider whether the protection of their patent-related inventions is the best way to protect their products. The possibility of using species can also be considered
