A summary of the advice is not to grant electronic rights for more than a few years, because the market is changing so fast, and not to sell electronic rights for a lump sum - insist on a continuing royalty or licence. 9 Programs . Patents and copyright in computer programs are very complex. Copyright protects the original expression of elaborated ideas and applies to computer programs as literary works. Copyright protection does not extend to cover underlying ideas or concepts.
Patents protect novel and non-obvious methods of achieving technically useful results.
The leaflet also mentions confidentiality, and contractual rights, as the other methods of protecting intellectual property rights. The notes contain a number of quotations from books. If quoting these, please ensure that the names of the authors and book titles are retained with the quotations.