K-School tackles software patents Some folks from the Kennedy School take their stab at the whole software/intellectual property debate. The come up with the following schema:
- Patents protects object code (as object code is product or functional innovation)
- Copyright protects source code (as source code is expression)
This isn't bad, as it allows implementations to be patented, but not functionality. I personally don't think event the patenting of implementations is necessary, but this is clearly better than the 1-click nonsense we have now. Copyright protecting source is also OK, although the current copyright provisions are broken.