Sadly it is next to impossible to get a patent for software in germany. It has to interface with some kind of hardware (like an engine control software in a car

Sadly it is next to impossible to get a patent for software in germany. It has to interface with some kind of hardware (like an engine control software in a car or plane). A bot or something similar that only runs on a computer can't be patented in germany. I am german myself and work on a research project and we tested some software on our participants and they loved it. So we thought about protecting our idea / software. For that reason we attended a talk held by multiple patent lawyers specialised in germany law and all of them said the same: "It can't be done without a hardware interface".