Software and patents
Elmer Galbi · Communications of the ACM · 1971
It is noted that the question of whether copyright protection is narrower or broader than patent protection is subject to some degree of disagreement.Although most people contend that copyright protection is, in fact, narrower than patent protection, the most that can clearly and absolutely be said is that the nature of protection granted by a patent is fundamentally different from the type of protection granted by a copyright.For example, a copyright only prohibits "copying" or performing, while a patent prohibits anyone, including someone who developed the idea independently, from "making, using, and selling" the patented article.Another difference is that copyright infringement is a civil and criminal offense, whereas patent infringement is only a civil offense.It should be noted that the result of copyright protection can be very broad at times.For example, the courts have given protection to characters in books, plays, comic strips, etc.