Protectable Assets in a Mobile App: An IP Layer by Layer Guide

62 questions on protectable assets in a mobile app, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are open-source licenses enforceable, and how?
• Can the ornamental appearance of an on-screen interface be patented?
• Do I need to register my copyright if it exists automatically?
• How can a mascot character be protected twice over?
• How can code be registered without surrendering its secrets?
• How did Google v. Oracle resolve the API question?
• How did Van Buren narrow the CFAA as a data-protection tool?
• How do app-store developer agreements bear on IP?
• How does distinctiveness set a mark's strength for an app?
• How does protecting data as an asset differ from protecting it as a liability?
• How do the open-source license families differ in consequence?
• How should a developer choose between a patent and a trade secret?
• Instead of asking whether the app as a whole is protected, what should a developer ask?
• In what order should a developer actually work the IP inventory?
• In which classes should an app register its trademark?
• Is both source code and object code copyrightable?
• Is open-source code free to use in a commercial app?
• What did Tetris v. Xio teach about cloning without copying code?
• What did the great graphical-interface cases of the 1990s establish?
• What does an app with user uploads need to qualify for the DMCA safe harbor?
• What does copyright reach in an app, and what is its hard limit?
• What does copyright reliably reach in an app's code, and what does it miss?
• What does running the full inventory actually achieve?
• What does the bot-scalping litigation illustrate about layered protection?
• What does trademark protect in an app, and what does trade secret protect?
• What do utility and design patents each protect in an app context?
• What is an API, and what was the decade-long cloud over its status?
• What is the abstraction-filtration-comparison test?
• What is the Alice/Mayo two-step for software claims?
• What is the cardinal rule of app trade-secret protection?
• What is the concrete drafting lesson for surviving § 101?
• What is the consequence of hiring a freelancer without an assignment?
• What is the fastest remedy against a confusingly similar clone?
• What is the fourth, non-litigation route to look-and-feel enforcement?
• What is the idea/expression dichotomy, and why does it matter for cloning?
• What is the one-sentence summary of app IP protection?
• What language must a contributor agreement contain?
• What music chain-of-title problem catches app developers?
• What must an app prove to claim trade dress in its design?
• What qualifies as a trade secret in an app, and what is the hard requirement?
• What single rule prevents nearly all app ownership pain?
• What strings come attached to stock and AI-generated assets?
• What three lessons does Google v. Oracle hold for app builders?
• What two additional component traps deserve a flag?
• What two recent shifts sharpen design-patent strategy for apps?
• Which app assets sit squarely inside copyright's comfort zone?
• Which Federal Circuit guideposts show what survives Alice?
• Which reverse-engineering cases underwrite the interoperability principle?
• Who owns a patentable invention created on the job?
• Who owns user-generated content, and what should the TOS do about it?
• Who owns work made for hire, and where is the trap?
• Why can a design patent be the highest-stakes claim in the stack?
• Why can't an app copyright its raw data?
• Why does clearance do double duty as a defense?
• Why is an app a portfolio rather than a product?
• Why is contract the connective tissue of app IP?
• Why is "look and feel" not a legal category?
• Why is the app icon both a trademark and a copyright?
• Why is the copyleft danger acute specifically for apps?
• Why may the brand be the most valuable layer an app company owns?
• Why might a fast-moving app skip the patent entirely?
• Why should a developer register the content and not just the code?