PrepTest 157, Section 4, Question 27

Working the answers

• A
  Correct

  The second paragraph excludes general principles from patent protection. The final paragraph says copyright protects the specific expression of an idea rather than the idea itself (paragraph 3). Together, those statements support the conclusion that a general scientific principle itself receives neither kind of protection. A specific design or written expression is a different object of protection.

• B

  This assigns patents the very subject the second paragraph excludes. The windmill design may qualify, but the general principle that wind can produce energy does not.

• C

  We aren't told that the two categories usually overlap. Describing what each protects doesn't establish that something qualifying for one generally qualifies for the other.

• D

  This is tempting if we blur a copyrighted program with its underlying algorithm. Copyright protects the particular coded expression; it doesn't give the copyright holder control over every competing use of the general algorithm. The fact that an application is copyrighted doesn't establish the permission requirement D places on the underlying algorithm.

• E

  No estimate of the prevalence of illegally copied code is given. Copycatting being a problem doesn't establish that it appears in a majority of commercially available programs.