The search engine Lycos recently received a patent for its search engine software. Does it make sense to patent software? Is a copyright sufficient for software? Simson Garfinkel's article "Patently Absurd" at www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.07/patents.html discusses whether it made sense for the Patent Office to grant Compton's a patent on multimedia technology. The Changing Roles of Patent and Copyright Protection for Software at www.gigalaw.com/articles/
kirsch-2000-04-p1.html describes the type and degree of protection of software offered by copyright and patent. (Software: Copyright or Patent? A Comparative Analysis at at www.mccutchen.com/ip/ip_2101.htm is no longer available.) In "The Blessing (or Bane) of Software Patents" at www.educause.edu/pub/er/
review/reviewArticles/29338.html, Edmund B. Burke points out that software copyrights are limited by nature and that a patent is a more appealing form of protection for software companies.