Software can be protected, but not by a single right. The protection comes from a combination, and knowing which mechanism applies to which part of your product is what makes the protection real rather than assumed.
Copyright arises automatically in the EU the moment code is written, with no registration required, though documenting authorship, dates and ownership strengthens your hand in any dispute. Patents can protect software that produces a genuine technical effect, subject to the criteria applied by the patent offices. Trade secrets protect algorithms and processes provided you take reasonable steps to keep them confidential. And the database right protects substantial investment in building a database. Most real products rely on several of these at once.
In Belgium, copyrighted software is among the rights that qualify for the innovation income deduction, which sharply lowers the effective tax rate on qualifying income. That makes documenting authorship and ownership not just a litigation safeguard but a condition of a real tax benefit, since the deduction depends on demonstrable ownership.
Software protection connects our patent work, the innovation income deduction, and the contracts in commercial contracts and transactions that assign and licence code. The background sits in the Belgian copyright tax regime and grants and tax incentives for IP, and the development, SaaS and contribution agreements are drafted through our Contract Studio technology.
Yes. Copyright exists from the moment of creation. But documenting authorship, creation date and ownership materially strengthens your position if the right is ever challenged.
Software that achieves a genuine technical effect can be patentable under the criteria the patent offices apply. Pure business logic without a technical contribution generally is not.
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