We'll save a discussion of trademarks for a later issue. A patent is a seventeen year exclusive monopoly on the right to make, use and sell a qualifying invention. This legal monopoly is considered a reward for the time and effort expended in creating the invention. In return, the invention must be described in detail to the Patent Office, which publishes the information, thus increasing the amount of technological knowledge available to the public. An invention is nonobvious if it is more than a trivial, obvious next step in the advance of the technology.
Software patents can be extremely powerful economic tools.
They can protect features of a program that cannot be protected under copyright or trade secret law. Since patent rights are exclusive, anyone making, using or selling the patented invention without the patent owner's authorization is guilty of infringement. Penalties are stiff and include triple damages. While a patent can protect the novel ideas embodied in a software program, a copyright cannot. Copyright protection extends to the particular form in which an idea is expressed.