The intellectual property of the software belongs to Party A. Can Party B apply for the copyright of the software?

1 ... First, we need to determine the meaning of intellectual property.

Intellectual property is the ownership of the results produced by intellectual labor, and it is an exclusive right granted to qualified authors, inventors or owners of results in a certain period of time according to the laws of various countries.

It has two types: one is copyright (also known as copyright and literary property rights) and the other is industrial property rights (also known as industrial property rights).

(1) Copyright

Copyright, also known as copyright, refers to the property rights and spiritual rights that natural persons, legal persons or other organizations enjoy in accordance with the law for literary, artistic and scientific works. Mainly including copyright and neighboring rights related to copyright; Usually, what we call intellectual property mainly refers to the copyright of computer software and the registration of works.

(2) Industrial property rights

Industrial property right refers to an intangible property right with practical economic significance in industries such as industry, commerce, agriculture and forestry, so the name "industrial property right" is more appropriate. It mainly includes patent right and trademark right.

2. In other words, intellectual property rights originally include the category of software copyright, so in this case, Party B cannot apply for software copyright;

Generally people will say that intellectual property refers to patents. In this case, Party B can apply for software copyright.