Communications Protocols

I'm interested in learning about the degree of copyrightability of communications protocols in the United States.

By "communication protocol", I mean the specific way that data is encoded for communication between systems or agents. Presumably a document describing the protocol is copyrightable, as would be software that implements the protocol. But the protocol itself? Offhand, it doesn't seem likely in a post-Feist environment.

An example of the sort of protocol I mean is HTTP, used e.g. by Internet Explorer to communicate with web servers.

This is not a request for legal advice; I'd just like to educate myself about the subject. I'm hoping that it has appeared in journals or caselaw.

  --David E Hollingsworth Received on Thu Sep 08 2005 - 00:50:00 GMT