

Ask HN: Do you patent your software projects? - kgermino

In class today my teacher mentioned that most small coders don't bother filing patents for their programs because it's too expensive to be worth it.  Is this true in the "real world"?
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georgecmu
What class, what school, which country?

Generally, it's very rare for a 'program' to be patented. What usually gets
patented is algorithms and frameworks.

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kgermino
It's an Electrical Engineering class at Marquette in Milwaukee WI USA. But it
was more an offhand comment by the teacher than a part of the lesson.

~~~
georgecmu
As another offhand comment, a lot of people believe that algorithms are not
patentable.

From
[http://www.lawtechjournal.com/notes/2003/10_030727_fagerland...](http://www.lawtechjournal.com/notes/2003/10_030727_fagerland.php)

/* "You can't patent an 'algorithm'" */

Not true. An algorithm, even a mathematical algorithm, is patentable unless
(1) it is not sufficiently disclosed to overcome the "abstract idea"
exception, or (2) it is executed with no useful application in mind.26 This
description of just what an "algorithm" is may be helpful: "Although one may
devise a computer algorithm for the Pythagorean theorem, it is the step-by-
step process which instructs the computer to solve the theorem which is the
algorithm, rather than the theorem itself."27 Under Alappat, the algorithm
might be patentable. The theorem itself, being an abstract idea, certainly
would not.

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ilkhd2
And many, many coders are so averse to this idea, so they do not do this
obnoxious stuff.

