News to complete our legal knowledge on the Directive 2009/24/EC . Case law is developing:

According to the Court of Justice of the European Union: The functionality of a computer program and the programming language cannot be protected by copyright.

On the basis of those considerations, the Court holds that neither the functionality of a computer program nor the programming language and the format of data files used in a  computer program in order to exploit certain of its functions constitute a form of expression. Accordingly, they do not enjoy copyright protection.

 

To accept that the functionality of a computer program can be protected by copyright would amount to making it possible to monopolise ideas, to the detriment of technological progress and industrial development.