 Permalink for comment 537830 Member since:  I'm going to guess
you aren't a software engineer.  Software innovation generally
comes down to one thing: algorithms. The thing is, when you
release a product, the algorithms are hidden. It's not like an
engine, or a drug, where it can (fairly easily) be broken into
its component parts to see how it's made.  Think of Google. When
it came out, it was successful because of the algorithm
development they did. It isn't protected by patents though. It's
protected because only Google employees know the exact
parameters (despite the overall idea of the algorithm being
common knowledge).  What people call software patents have
always been either trivial and obvious (such as forwarding
packets in a router), or really design patents. That is, the
outcome of the program and the way it works and interacts with
the user. Think of the example of using a mapping program on a
smartphone. Apple has patented the idea of searching for a
contact within the mapping program so that the