A copyright protects an author's original works against copying. Unlike patents, copyrights are very easy to obtain. In fact, works are automatically copyrighted from the time they are created in fixed form. This registration establishes a public record of the copyright claim and is a prerequisite for suing another party for copyright infringement. Although not required, authors are encouraged to include a copyright notice in their works.
Engineers are most likely to encounter copyrights as they pertain to software.
A software program can be a candidate for patenting, copyrighting, or both. A copyright only prevents someone else from copying the software program. However, if you have a patented method used within your software and another person creates the same program without actually copying your program, but uses the patented method, then the patent right will offer protection-even though the second program was created independently. Usually this includes the first 25 and last 25 pages of source code. Finally, a trademark is any word, name, symbol, or device that identifies and distinguishes a product or services.