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Software Patenting
Author(s) -
Zekos Georgios I.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the journal of world intellectual property
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.334
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1747-1796
pISSN - 1422-2213
DOI - 10.1111/j.1422-2213.2006.00285.x
Subject(s) - executable , software , computer science , object (grammar) , patentability , embodied cognition , process (computing) , component (thermodynamics) , software engineering , component based software engineering , software system , operating system , intellectual property , artificial intelligence , physics , patent law , thermodynamics
Patentable inventions in computer science cannot be whole software programs. An executable software program stored in the memory of a computer is an example of a machine component, embodied in electrical signals, having a particular physical structure. Software components could be patented within tangible inventions; however, pure software is still largely unprotected. Examiners are required to look, not at how the computer interprets the algorithm, but at the results of the process. The determination of the patentability of the subject matter must be made on the basis of externally observable behavior of the device in question, rather than on any knowledge of whether a device is implemented in hardware or in software. A software invention can be a new physical or electronic and virtual object, which performs a new function, either electronic/virtual or physical, with virtual effects felt in the real world.