> I don't see software in the list. Software is usually claimed as a method, commonly accepted as a synonym for the statutory term process. Some patents inclu

> I don't see software in the list. Software is usually claimed as a method, commonly accepted as a synonym for the statutory term process. Some patents include claims directed to machines programmed to perform a stated method. The Federal Circuit held 20 years ago that a general-purpose that is programmed to perform a new method programming becomes a new, special-purpose computer that as such can be patented if otherwise eligible [1]. Another type of claim in a software patent is the so-called Beauregard claim. [2] That type of claim is directed to an "article of manufacture," one of the statutory categories, along the lines of the following: "15. A program storage device tangibly embodying a program of instructions for performing the method of a specified one of claims 1 through 14." That type of claim allows the patent owner to sue not just the end user for using the patented method, but also to sue the software vendor for having sold the patented article of manufacture. (For clarity, Beauregard claims to program storage devices, etc., are unpatentable if the underlying software methods are themselves unpatentable. [3].) [1] In re Alappat, http://digital-law-online.info/cases/31PQ2D1545.htm http://digital-law-online.info/cases/31PQ2D1545.htm [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_patent_claim_types#Beauregard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_patent_claim_types#Beau... [3] http://inventivestep.net/2011/08/22/federal-circuit-rules-beauregard-claims-are-unpatentable/ http://inventivestep.net/2011/08/22/federal-circuit-rules-be...