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Rodrigo Muñoz
Courses Plus Student 20,171 PointsBusiness > Corporate strategy > Terminologies
Hi,
Does anyone knows about intelectual property if a code from a website or launching a new technology plugin can be patented?
Also I've heard that business models can be copied (in order to avoid monopolism), but in the video shows that business method can be included as intelectual properties.
2 Answers
Pasan Premaratne
Treehouse TeacherHi Rodrigo,
Intellectual property law is not the same worldwide so I can give you the U.S. aspect of it. Intellectual property rights extend to software as well - patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets protect different aspects of software.
In regards to your question, any source code can be copyrighted by uploading the code to the U.S. Copyright office. If the plugin or code does something that is new and unique it can be patented to prevent any one from copying the method. For example check out this patent by Kevin Rose.
To answer your second question - there is a difference between a business model and business method. For example, Apple's business model is manufacturing and selling phones. They can have a unique business method in how they specifically manufacture their phones. So while the business model cannot be protected and can be copied, you can patent the manufacturing process.
Hope that helps.
Rodrigo Muñoz
Courses Plus Student 20,171 PointsThanks man! It helped a lot