I am writing a term paper related to copyright and patent. I need some insights to prepare for the paper. Can you tell me whether one can apply for patent for a business model? Coca Cola and Pepsi have similar line of business. It seems business model cannot be patented as if so, Coke will not have a competitor, Pepsi, or vice versa. :confused:

You can patent an idea or concept, but there are a lot of things in the public domain. I'm not sure what business model you think Cole or Pepsi have that is unique. The concept of selling a product is centuries old so how can it patented?

Now no one can sell anything under the label Coca-Cola or Pepsi because those names are copyrighted. Also patented are the formulas for their products.

Is it possible, however to patent a business process. Amazon patented one of their processes on their site to speed up ordering and defended that process in court.