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But why grant software patents at all? Software is already protected with copyrights as literary works. Copyright protection is not as broad as patent protecti

• jandrewrogers 14y ago
  All patents are granted copyright protection in this sense. After all, they are filed on paper and both the process and implementation are reducible to such. To give an example, chemical process patents are among the oldest and most venerable kinds of patents in existence and are essentially equivalent to computer algorithm patents (except involving molecules instead of bits). A new algorithm for efficiently producing a particular chemical is protected by patents. The implementation of that algorithm, such as in a chemical manufacturing plant, is protected by copyright. There are an infinite number of ways the abstract process can be reduced to practice, all of which are copyrightable. In practice, the implementation copyright and the process patent are separately valuable, are often sold separately, and protect different people. The patent protects the effort of the individual who developed the chemical process. The copyright protects the effort of the engineer who designed a way to efficiently uses that chemical process.