"In these instances, copyright protection does not exist because granting protection to the expressive component of the work necessarily would extend protection to the work’s uncopyrightable ideas as well (citations omitted). For computer programs, “if the patentable process is embodied inextricably in the line-by-line instructions of the computer program, [ ] then the process merges with the expression and precludes copyright protection. . ."
For like reasons, Judge Feikens is correct that a poem in the
abstract could be copyrightable. But that does not mean that the
poem receives copyright protection when it is used in the
context of a lock-out code. Similarly, a computer program may be
protectable in the abstract but not generally entitled to
protection when used necessarily as a lock-out device."
Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static
Control Components, Inc., 387 F.3d 522 (6th Cir. 2004)