What legal concept protects expressions of ideas and does not cover ideas themselves?

The legal concept that protects expressions of ideas but does not cover the ideas themselves is copyright. Copyright law is designed to give creators exclusive rights to their original works of authorship, which can include literature, music, art, film, software, and more. This means that while the specific way an idea is expressed—such as the text of a novel or the melody of a song—can be protected under copyright, the underlying idea or concept cannot be copyrighted.

For instance, if a particular story is told in a unique fashion, that specific narrative is protected, but someone else can tell a similar story using different characters or settings. Copyright protection thus incentivizes creativity and innovation by allowing creators to control how their expressions are used and distributed.

In contrast, patent law is concerned with protecting inventions and processes, trademarks protect brand identifiers like logos and names, and trade secrets protect confidential business information. Each of these categories serves a different purpose and does not specifically focus on the expression of ideas in the same way copyright does.