COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
A third type of intellectual property is the copyright. A copyright protects literary and artistic “expression” as well as other types of informative media that derive their value from the particular manner in which the information is expressed. Books, musical works, plays, computer programs, paintings, sculptures, and movies are among the types of works which are eligible for copyright protection. Generally, any work which is fixed and which includes an artistic or expressive component can be the subject of a copyright. A copyright generally protects only a work’s appearance or “expression.” Copyrights are different and separate from patents and trademarks. You cannot copyright an invention; you patent an invention. You cannot copyright the name of a product; but you can establish trademark rights in a product name. However, you cannot patent or trademark a book, which is the particular expression of an idea, and is protectable only by copyright. A copyright arises in a work if at least a portion of the work is original (not copied from something else) and the work includes some literary or artistic expression. Copyright only protects particular expressions of ideas, not the ideas themselves. For example, although a copyright exists in a particular painting of a lighthouse, the copyright only protects that particular painting and does not prevent others from creating a painting of the lighthouse. Painting
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