Try not to call it copyright/patent law. There is copyright law, and there is patent law, and what's true for one is almost never true for the other. Copyright

Try not to call it copyright/patent law. There is copyright law, and there is patent law, and what's true for one is almost never true for the other. Copyright is automatic. Patents are applied for and cost money. Copyright lasts 70 years from your death. Patent's last 25 years from invention. Copyrights don't prevent other people doing the same thing you did. Patents make it illegal to do the same thing, even if you separately invented it and didn't know about the first one etc.