Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Pennsylvania

Re: Copyright or Patent

In fact, any code written by an employee in the course of his work is automatically protected by copyright owned by the employer. It is always desirable to file a copyright application (government fee $45) to register the copyright definitively, but the copyright would be in existence even without such registration.

On the other hand, although software is often patentable, the subject matter must be novel, useful, and not obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the field. Under U.S. law, the invention would need to be disclosed in a patent application filed no later than 12 months from the first public use or disclosure or offer for sale of the invention. If one of those acts took place more than 12 months ago, then it would be too late to file a patent application.

In effect, patent and copyright can act as belt and suspenders, both can hold up your pants and you can wear both of them together if you want the maximum protection.