Copyright issues for a LabVIEW based application

Question

Has anyone filed a Copyright for a LabVIEW based application? Copyright office is asking for printed code, which may not work in the case of LabVIEW. Any suggestions?
Ravi Beniwal

Answer 1

My general experience with copyright and patent law (copyrights in both music and software) is that, for the copyright process, no individual is going to evaluate your code and "approve" your code/program as with a patent application. The documentation of the code is necessary to build the record that you have created "x" method and someone should not copy your "x" method. I would send a print out of your code in G and perhaps a flow chart.
If you are looking for protection as to what you program does then you may want to consider patent application, but this is significantly more expensive than the copyright process. Also, under the copyright law, your work is considered copyright protected from the day at which you display copyright info on all of the objects and this is important in proving (later, if needed, if someone copies your work) that you have sought to actively protect your intellectual property. So put (c) 2005 on all the materials that contain your code and or application.
TommyH