Registering My Source Code(Hardwork)....

Your code and application can be copyrighted, but presently, you can''t patent a specific technology because two different sources that do the same thing can tend to be very similiar or identical. The place to register your application is the Copyright office.

Paradigm Shift 2000

Are you talking about patents or copyrights? To a certain extent all you need to do to copyright material is place the statement "Copyright (C) 2001 _Your_Name_Here_" at the top of the code and include the terms of use. To patent anything you need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that it is something unique that you have discovered/invented - not very likely for indie games.

The place to register patents in the US is the US Patent and Trademark Office. In Europe it''s the European Patent Office. Here are links to the others.

I''ll add a few extra statements. If you don''t want to share your code, don''t. There''s tons of free code on the internet, so it''s unlikely that anyone would need to steal yours.

A common-law copyright, which is what Oluseyi is saying, is valid with a few exceptions, but to take legal action a lawyer is going to want a Registered Copyright, which you can obtain from the Copyright Office, for a fee. The link to the U.S. Copyright Office is here:

http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

Paradigm Shift 2000

P.S. Oh, btw... the U.S. Copyright Office site has some *very* good information on Copyright Law, the particulars of common-law Copyright, and the advantages of a Registered Copyright. I was just reading it and I found out some things I didn't know myself

Edited by - Paradigm Shift 2000 on October 20, 2001 9:36:22 PM