Editing Software patent (section)

===Overlap with copyright===
{{See also|Software copyright|Copyright infringement of software}}
Patent and copyright protection constitute two different means of legal protection which may cover the same subject matter, such as computer programs, since each of these two means of protection serves its own purpose.<ref>{{citation|work=Decision [[T 1173/97]] (Computer program product/IBM) of 1.7.1998|publisher=European Patent Office, Boards of Appeal|date=1 July 1998|title=Reasons 2.4|url=https://www.epo.org/law-practice/case-law-appeals/recent/t971173ex1.html}}</ref> Software is protected as works of literature under the [[Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works|Berne Convention]]. This allows the creator to prevent another entity from copying the program and there is generally no need to register code in order for it to be copyrighted.

Patents, on the other hand, give their owners the right to prevent others from using the technology defined by the patent claims, even if the technology was independently developed and there was no copying of a software or software code involved. In fact, one of the most recent EPO decisions<ref>{{citation|title=Decision T 0424/03 (Clipboard formats I/MICROSOFT) of 23.2.2006|publisher=European Patent Office Boards of Appeal|date=23 February 2006|url=https://www.epo.org/law-practice/case-law-appeals/recent/t030424eu1.html}}</ref> clarifies the distinction, stating that software is patentable, because it is basically only a technical method executed on a computer, which is to be distinguished from the program itself for executing the method, the program being merely an expression of the method, and thus being copyrighted.

Patents cover the underlying methodologies embodied in a given piece of software, or the function that the software is intended to serve, independent of the particular language or code that the software is written in. Copyright prevents the direct copying of some or all of a particular version of a given piece of software, but does not prevent other authors from writing their own embodiments of the underlying methodologies. Assuming a dataset meets certain criteria, copyright can also be used to prevent a given set of data from being copied while still allowing the author to keep the contents of said set of data a [[trade secret]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/733688/Trade+Secrets/Copyright+in+Data+Compilations+Is+Thin|title=Copyright in Data Compilations is Thin|last=Bro|first=Sarah|date=September 6, 2018|work=Mondaq Business Briefing|access-date=January 25, 2019}}</ref>

Whether and how the [[Numerus clausus#Law|numerus clausus principle]] shall apply to the legal hybrid software<ref>{{cite journal|last=Burk|first=Dan L.|title=Copyrightable functions and patentable speech|journal=Communications of the ACM|publisher=Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)|volume=44|issue=2|date=February 2001|pages=69–75|doi=10.1145/359205.359231|s2cid=10784660|doi-access=free}}</ref> to provide a judicious balance between property rights of the title holders and freedom rights of computing professionals<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kiesewetter-Köbinger|first=Swen|year=2010|title=Programmers' Capital|journal=Computer|volume=43|issue=2|pages=106–108|doi=10.1109/MC.2010.47}}</ref> and society as a whole,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/patent_policy/en/scp_14/scp_14_7.pdf|title=Proposal from Brazil in respect of exceptions and limitations to patent rights|author=Standing Committee on the Law of Patents|date=January 20, 2010|publisher=World Intellectual Property Organization|access-date=4 February 2010}}</ref> is in dispute.<ref>{{citation|url=http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/indprop/docs/comp/replies/planck_en.pdf|title=Stellungnahme zum Sondierungspapier der Kommission der Europaischen Gemeinschaften: Die Patentierbarkeit Computer-implementierter Erfindungen|trans-title=Opinion on the consultation paper by the Commission of the European Communities: The patentability of computer-implemented inventions|author=Max-Planck-Institut|date=20 December 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.buchhandel.de/WebApi1/GetMmo.asp?MmoId=4804929&mmoType=PDF|first=Marcus|last=Hoffmann|title=Mehrfachschutz geistigen Eigentums im deutschen Rechtssystem|trans-title=Multiple protection of intellectual property in the German legal system|year=2008|isbn=978-3-8316-0806-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Alexander|last=Peukert|title=Güterzuordnung als Rechtsprinzip|trans-title=Goods classification as a legal principle|year=2008|isbn=978-3-16-149724-7|publisher=Mohr Siebeck}}</ref>