Re: Communications Protocols

The short answer is that no way of doing something can be copyrighted, since it's only expression that is subject to copyright (as opposed to patents, which can cover ways of doing things). Somebody's *description* of a protocol might possibly be copyrightable to the extent it is not entirely funcrtional, and any specific programming using a protocol can be copyrighted to the extent it is original expression.

That any help?

Vance

On 9/7/05, David E. Hollingsworth <deh[_at_]fastanimals.com> wrote:
>
>
> 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
>
>
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-- 
Vance R. Koven
Boston, MA USA
vrkoven[_at_]world.std.com