The article forget to mention that patents is per country. This means that you have to choose which countries you want to protect yourself in. You also have to

The article forget to mention that patents is per country. This means that you have to choose which countries you want to protect yourself in. You also have to translate the application to the language to those countries and file it there. Just because you get a patent in US does not mean that you will be granted one in Germany for example. My experience is that it is harder to get a patent in EU (better prior art check etc). The countries you choose not to patent in are free to use your claims and specifications as much as they want. (but they can not sell, marketing etc in the protected ones) What can be patented can also slightly differ, specially in SW.