I caught SAP's chief intellectual property officer on his way out to get his thoughts on software patents. For Tim Crean, copyrights protect the "expression" of an idea whereas patents protect the idea itself. "Both copyrights and patents are complimentary", said Crean. In a nutshell, you could get around copyright laws by developing a piece of software in a "clean room", even if you reverse-engineered a rival's product. "Copyrights do not protect features in a product", adds Crean. But with patents, it'll be much harder to get "inspired" by a competitor's feature without infringing. Finally, Crean said SAP is looking to broad the scope of software patents protection outside the US. "It's much narrower overseas as fewer ideas can actually be protected by a patent".

Some links to blogs covering the same subject:
- Techdirt
-The 463
-ZDnet