Why is it Hard to Get Software Patent Protection?

1
Why is it Hard to Get Software Patent Protection?

• This industry has used software patent protection
  to stifle innovation, eliminate competition, and
  generate unjustified royalties. Software patents
  continue to grant the ability to "bargain between
  both the inventor and the community at large,"
  where the inventor obtains a limited exclusivity
  and the sole right to leverage the invention in
  exchange for disclosing their discovery to the
  public. Although each inventor encounters unique
  challenges when trying to get a software patent
  for one or more of their innovations, such as
• Your invention must be "new" in at least one way
  that sets it apart from currently available
  products. This covers solutions mentioned in
  other patent applications, blogs, articles,
  manuals, online guides, and white papers.
• Being inventive for your software patent
  protection to work requires your invention to not
  only have a unique feature but also for that
  feature to be obscure. When the novel feature is
  well-known, such as one that can be easily used
  with other known features and is described in
  textbooks or on Wikipedia, your invention will be
  termed "obvious." Correspondingly, your inventive
  step will lack originality if the differentiating
  feature is described in another document, which
  makes it obvious to integrate with the
  pre-existing technique that offers other
  features.
• A Software Program's Design Is Far More Crucial
  Than Its Code and patented without having its
  code written. This is because code is a language
  according to law. The crucial aspect of the
  software is its design and architecture, which
  serve as a "road map" for what you would like
  your program to accomplish. In a well-written
  patent application, the method by which the
  computer code will perform a specific task is
  fully described. The application explains how a
  programmer can achieve a desired result by
  writing the necessary code.

2
What Are the Possibilities for Software Patent
Protection?

• Software is more difficult to visualize because
  it often consists of many non-essential,
  interoperable parts and multiple technology
  layers in its implementation stack. This
  frequently results in inadequate patent
  specifications and miscommunications. In
  actuality, these challenges lead to
• Low grant rates
• validity issues
• expensive prosecution or
• Patent evasion.
• What Can We Do?
• Finding the best patent lawyer or law firm should
  be the first step for companies looking for
  software patent protection. A small number of
  lawyers work with software every day. Find a
  lawyer who has worked for a sizable software
  company, such as Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard,
  Oracle, SAS, Amazon, or Google.
• Trade secrets and copyrights can frequently offer
  the necessary protection. Although the idea
  itself is not protected by copyrights, other
  elements like the source code or the layout may
  be. Similarly, the source code and a few other
  software variables might be protected by trade
  secrets. While neither offers complete security,
  they can act as a barrier between your software
  invention and your rivals.
• Therefore, obtaining a software patent is not
  impossible, but it might not be the best course
  of action for software patent protection. Discuss
  your choices with an intellectual property lawyer.