BakerHostetler has created a web-based tool, which summarizes cases addressing copyright protection for computer software. The tool, called Beyond Source Code, digests the cases addressing protection of non-literal elements of computer programs, organizing the decisions by whether they extended or rejected such protection, and includes a section identifying cases based on the type of non-literal element at issue.
Protection for elements such as user interfaces and sequence, structure and organization of computer programs has received more attention since the 2014 Oracle v. Google Federal Circuit decision, culminating in two major jury verdicts in late 2016 and early 2017: ZeniMax v. Oculus and Cisco v. Arista. This is an area of the law that both courts and practitioners struggle with, we created Beyond Source Code to help navigate these thorny issues.
Beyond Source Code can be found here. In addition, we have published a blog post that provides more context for the tool.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
