Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Johannes Ernst <jernst+lists.ibiblio.org AT netmesh.us>]

If someone publishes a scientific article, my understanding is that the 
copyright on that article only covers the actual article, but not the 
concepts and ideas described.

For example, if a modern Edison published an article about having 
invented the lightbulb, copyright law deals with somebody making copies 
of the article, but not with other people wanting to compete in 
producing light bulbs. So if Edison said: "copy this article as often 
as you like" he'd not in fact be granting a license to his invention 
(which he patented I believe).

On the other hand, open source licenses for software seem to be 
commonly interpreted as granting not only a license under copyright 
(e.g. "you may copy-paste this subroutine") but also under patent law 
(e.g. "you may do a clean-room implementation").

Not being a lawyer: I am correct so far?

Reading through the CC licenses, it appears to me that they are very 
silent on the issue of IP rights other than copyright in works covered 
by CC licenses.

In my example above, if Edison released his scientific article on 
lightbulbs under a CC license, would or would he not have granted 
competitors the right to manufacture light bulbs, royalty-free? Or is 
an answer to this question simply not known at this time, probably 
inviting decades of lawsuits if one used CC under these circumstances? 
;-)