Copyright. Sexy: Internet file sharing systems, Grokster, sampling, The Wind Done Gone, fair use, the legal standard for non literal infringement of computer source code.
Not sexy: copyright protection for parts numbering systems.
Yet, believe it or not, from time to time clients do ask whether parts numbering systems are protected.
Lewis Clayton at Paul Weiss has written an article (published in the July 8, 2005 issue of the National Law Journal), discussing several recent cases dealing with parts-numbering systems and the “merger doctrine” under U.S. copyright law.
- Read the article here