I wish to get my software copyrighted, so how do I determined if I have infringed on someone else copyrights.

Your copyright existed in the software as soon as you wrote it. Regarding registering your copyright, please see the link below.

If you did all of your own design and coding, without reference to any other product, then you don't have to worry about having infringed someone else's copyright, because infringement is based on copying, which did not occur.

Disclaimer: This post does not constitute legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship.

It sounds like you might be confusing patents and copyrights. As long as your software is original and doesn't include any portions lifted from someone else's work you shouldn't have a problem. More to the point, unlike patent applications copyrighted works do not under go an examination process.

As noted by my colleagues, your software will be accepted by the Copyright Office as long as its eligible for copyright and has even a tiny amount of originality. Please see the Copyright Office's circular linked below. If any other owners of copyrights of similar software think your program is an infringement, then you'll hear from them.

Whether your program is eligible for copyright depends on whether it's really the kind of procedure, method, system, process, etc. that may be patentable, but can't be copyrighted as a creative work. Note that some documents that simply list publicly known data, like calendars, height and weight charts, etc., can't be copyrighted.

Disclaimer: Please note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on, since each state has different laws, each situation is fact specific, and it is impossible to evaluate a legal problem without a comprehensive consultation and review of all the facts and documents at issue. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Query: " ... so how do I determined if I have infringed on someone else copyrights."

Response: The rule is that you're not allowed to copy the protectable elements of someone else's code OR produce visual screen displays that are substantially similar to another computer program.

As for the code: The industry jargon used in the other program's code is not protectable. Unique blocks of code, however, are protectable. As noted by my colleague, you apparently have not had access to the code underlying the other programs. So, as far as infringing that other code, there seems to be very little risk.

As for your screen displays: If your screen displays appear "substantially similar" to those created by any of the other programs then you have a potential copyright infringement problem. If not, no worries. What's "substantially similiar?" There's the rub. If your gut tells you that maybe yours are substantially similar then you need to speak with an intellectual property attorney.

FYI -- the following link is to a court case that concludes that the scope of protection afforded by copyright to code also includes protection for the resulting screen displays. See < http://bit.ly/14Clqu >. The case is
Clarity Software, LLC v. Allianz Life Ins. Co. of N. Am., No. 2:04-cv-1441, 2006 WL 2346292, at *5 (W.D.Pa. Aug. 11, 2006) and is the consensus opinion nowadays (start reading at page 10).