Software and literature are very much the same, and yet there in no such a notion as patents in literature. (Copyright is not a patent) The main reason is that

Software and literature are very much the same, and yet there in no such a notion as patents in literature. (Copyright is not a patent) The main reason is that freedom of expression is a human right, and there is no freedom within a patents system. Words are keywords, and they are public domain. Sentences are snippets and they are PD too. Paragraphs are functions and they are protected by copyright, but the ideas in there are PD too. I see no space for patents in software because patents shouldn't protect ideas, and if we omit ideas, nothing is left in software. Again, software is literature. Humanity will undergo a new rinascimento when software patents will be suppressed, because development will be free at last.