In the US methods of doing things can be patented. That includes software. Look up MP3, LZW compression, or perhaps IBM's 2100 algorithm patents over the fiftee

In the US methods of doing things can be patented. That includes software. Look up MP3, LZW compression, or perhaps IBM's 2100 algorithm patents over the fifteen years from 2001 to 2016. It's being narrowed, but it still exists. Until rather recently many courts would recognize "do well understood process X, but on a computer" as patentable. http://blogs.gartner.com/doug-laney/patents-for-algorithms-have-increased-30x-the-past-fifteen-years/ http://blogs.gartner.com/doug-laney/patents-for-algorithms-h... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8310084 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8310084 http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/what-cant-be-patented.html http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/what-cant-be-p...