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  [Software]

Recently I've been wondering about software patents. I know little of them, but had been pondering about what they are and how they work. One of my questions is how can you patent something that isn't tangible? Two pieces of software could be developed by two different groups of people who have no knowledge of the other group's project. In this case, how are the projects similar and different? If two similar projects use different algorithms to complete a task, are they both patentable?

Secondly, how can you patent a design? A design or concept is based around algorithms, which form the "behind the scenes intelligence" of the software. But an algorithm is a like a type of science or mathematics. Can mathematical research have a patent such that no others are permitted to use the findings in research of there own?

To answer my questions, I stumbled around the internet, and finally turned to the Wikipedia entry on Software Patents. From the Wikipedia entry, a software patent "covers the programming method itself, independently of any implementation in code. Thus usually reimplementing a program will avoid copyright infringement, but not patent infringement. Like all patents, software patents are enforceable even if the competitors did not even know of the patent (patents are also kept secret for at least 18 months) and the software was completely independently developed."

I can't say that I know where I stand on the issue, but I do see how copyright infringement is different from patent infringement. Rewriting a piece of software is not making a replica of it, and thus avoids copyright infringement. However, if a piece of software is rewritten such that it uses "the programming method itself, independently of any implementation in code", then the patent has been infringed upon. I interpret this to mean that design at the algorithm level can not be re-implemented to perform the same task.

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