The term of protection of an invention patent is 20 years, counting from the date of application. However, the patent right is obtained after the application for examination and approval, and the patent examination procedure is complicated. It usually takes about 3 years from the application to the patent certificate. The software copyright protection period is 50 years, and it is protected by copyright from the date of development.
Software has been protected by copyright law before obtaining patent right. Applying for a patent does not affect its protection by copyright law. You have enough patience to wait for patent approval.
Ways to protect innovation achievements:
Generally speaking, the protection of innovation can be divided into patent application and trade secret protection: when an enterprise has an invention, it usually protects its legal rights by applying for a patent, but before applying for a patent, it needs a comprehensive analysis before deciding whether to apply for a patent.
Trade secrets are technical and economic information that is not known to the public, can bring economic benefits to the obligee, has practicality and has been kept secret by the obligee. However, once a trade secret is made public by others, it becomes public information and is no longer a trade secret.
The object of protection of trade secrets is generally commercial information that is not the object of patent protection or technical information that is difficult to imitate or crack for a long time. For the technological achievements developed, enterprises need to comprehensively consider the geographical scope and market competition of the technology before deciding whether to adopt trade secrets.