Originally Answered: 

What are the strength and limitations of using copyrights, patents, and trade secret
laws to protect intellectual property?
Trade secret: In trade secret the scope of protection is narrow. Since it only applies to the
group of people that have confidential access to this information and are obliged to not
disclose it. Once the trade secret becomes public it no longer enjoys the protection.
Furthermore, there is no protection from independent invention and the secret might still
be lost or exposed when it is obtained by reverse engineering the software
Copyright law:
According to copyright Act of India, a computer program or a software protected under
copyright law is usually regarded as a "literary work", . The unique characteristic of a
computer program differentiate them from other literary works is their dynamic essence,
which usually includes algorithms or mathematical formulae's or logical condition etc, which
manipulate symbols producing certain virtual or physical effects,etc. Copyright law provides
protection to the software or the computer program´s expression and not the functional
aspects of the software. Hence, computer programs differ from other copyright-able subject
matter, in the sense that the text is not the most important aspect; rather the importance
lies in the functions established by the program code.
Patent:
Indian Patent Act offers patent protection to product or process (if they satisfy various
requirements of patentability) as long as they do not fall under non-patentable subject
matter. Section 3 and 4 of the Indian Patent Act specify a list of subject matter that is not
patentable. Section 3(k) of the Indian Patent Act, which is provided below, is of specific
importance to software innovation.
Section 3(k) states that

3.What are not inventions

(k) a mathematical or business method or a computer program per se or algorithms;

Even in Europe, "computer programs as such" are excluded from patentability. The EPO
holds that a program for a computer is not patentable if it does not have the potential to
cause a "further technical effect" beyond the inherent technical interactions between
hardware and software.

It is very important to note that a computer program (source code) may not be patentable
as such, but it does not mean that a software invention cannot be patented. One way of
determining whether a software invention will be considered patentable subject matter or
not, is by trying to judge whether the software invention offers a technical solution to a
technical problem known as the technical character. The invention may be consider a
patentable subject matter if the software invention offers a technical solution to a technical
problem. A software invention once patented, will be valid for 20 years.