1, different protection principles.
Software copyright is automatically generated after the completion of software creation, and it is also a voluntary registration of software copyright. The purpose of registration is to reflect the effectiveness of notarization, mainly to declare the ownership of copyright, but also to strengthen the evidence for subsequent rights protection.
Software patents must be applied to the patent office for protection, so they must be actively applied. The patent system is based on the principle of "openness for protection".
2. Different protection bases
The basis of software copyright protection is Copyright Law and Regulations on the Protection of Computer Software. The basis of software patent protection is patent law. For the specific examination criteria, please refer to Chapter 9, Part II of China National Intellectual Property Administration Patent Examination Guide, "Several Issues Concerning the Examination of Invention Patent Applications Involving Computer Programs".
3. Different protection objects
The materials submitted for software copyright application are source code and user operation manual, so software copyright protects expression, not ideas. In this way, it is possible for competitors to study your software and then change the programming language to achieve the same result, but because the code is different, it does not infringe copyright.
The software patent describes the design idea of the software at the time of application (note that it must be expressed in the form of technical scheme, or preferably combined with hardware), including the content of software flow chart, rather than mainly explaining which programming language is used to realize it. Once authorized, anyone who adopts the design idea or scheme of software patent may constitute infringement.
4, the pass rate is different
Software copyright is a registration system and generally does not require substantive examination. As long as the materials submitted during the formal examination meet the requirements and do not violate the provisions of the copyright law, the software copyright can be granted, and the registration pass rate is extremely high.
Software patents need formal examination and actual examination. Generally, pure software patents are not easy to obtain rights, and the combination of software and hardware will improve the authorization rate, but the pass rate is still not high on the whole.
5, the protection period is different
The relevant copyright protection period of people's works stipulated by law is 50 years before and after the author's death; For the works of legal persons and other organizations, the relevant copyright protection period stipulated by law is 50 years.
Software patents can only be applied for invention patents, and the protection period is 20 years from the date of application.