An apparatus, comprising: a plurality of bounded pointer storage elements , each bounded pointer storage element to store a bounded pointer and associated permission attributes indicative of allowed uses of the bounded pointer, said associated permission attributes comprising a copy permission attribute indicating whether the bounded pointer is allowed to be subjected to a copy operation; and processing circuitry , responsive to at least one instruction that specifies the copy operation, to generate, from a source bounded pointer and associated permission attributes of a source bounded pointer storage element, a destination bounded pointer and associated permission attributes to be stored in a destination bounded pointer storage element, and to mark the source bounded pointer storage element as storing an invalid bounded pointer dependent on whether the copy permission attribute of the source bounded pointer has a first value indicating that the source bounded pointer is to be prevented from being subjected to the copy operation, whereas when the copy permission attribute has a second value indicating that the source bounded pointer is allowed to be subjected to the copy operation, the processing circuitry is arranged to retain the source bounded pointer storage element as storing a valid bounded pointer; wherein each bounded pointer storage element has a validity field associated therewith to indicate whether the bounded pointer storage element stores a valid bounded pointer, and the processing circuitry is arranged to mark the source bounded pointer storage element as storing an invalid bounded pointer by updating the validity field associated with the source bounded pointer storage element to identify that the source bounded pointer is invalid. a plurality of bounded pointer storage elements , each bounded pointer storage element to store a bounded pointer and associated permission attributes indicative of allowed uses of the bounded pointer, said associated permission attributes comprising a copy permission attribute indicating whether the bounded pointer is allowed to be subjected to a copy operation; and processing circuitry , responsive to at least one instruction that specifies the copy operation, to generate, from a source bounded pointer and associated permission attributes of a source bounded pointer storage element, a destination bounded pointer and associated permission attributes to be stored in a destination bounded pointer storage element, and to mark the source bounded pointer storage element as storing an invalid bounded pointer dependent on whether the copy permission attribute of the source bounded pointer has a first value indicating that the source bounded pointer is to be prevented from being subjected to the copy operation, whereas when the copy permission attribute has a second value indicating that the source bounded pointer is allowed to be subjected to the copy operation, the processing circuitry is arranged to retain the source bounded pointer storage element as storing a valid bounded pointer; wherein each bounded pointer storage element has a validity field associated therewith to indicate whether the bounded pointer storage element stores a valid bounded pointer, and the processing circuitry is arranged to mark the source bounded pointer storage element as storing an invalid bounded pointer by updating the validity field associated with the source bounded pointer storage element to identify that the source bounded pointer is invalid. <EOS>