Appropriate and inappropriate legal protection of user interfaces and screen displays. I

Evaluates the arguments for and against the protection of user interfaces and screen displays, and possible legal mechanisms for their protection under existing or new laws. It is an expansion and restatement of parts of the written statement submitted to the Copyright Office on behalf of the IEEE Computer Society. The author discusses the difficulties and problems that protection of user interfaces and screen displays might cause. He defines user interfaces and discusses their intrinsic and habit aspects. He then examines code and noncode aspects of screen displays.<>