I would say that patents and copywrite are orthogonal. A patent, hopefully, captures a truely new and original idea. Where as as copywrite encompass actual wor

I would say that patents and copywrite are orthogonal. A patent, hopefully, captures a truely new and original idea. Where as as copywrite encompass actual work. One huge problem with patentable ideas is that the idea should not obvious to those in the field, but intails a proof by contradiction. If the idea was obvious to one person, surely it was obvious to many. And is more clearly obvious to anyone who has seen the idea. Trade marks are only to protect branding, they stop mimicry that doesn’t violate copyright. Trade secrets are the real secret sauce. They are legally protected and by definition are unpatenable. It’s the only way to keep a competitive edge.