Depends on the patent office, both the German & European patent offices are fairly liberal in allowing software patents. The UK patent office is currently hard

Depends on the patent office, both the German & European patent offices are fairly liberal in allowing software patents. The UK patent office is currently harder to get a pure software patent in. It's certainly possible to get patents on software particularly if it has a technical effect. The UK patent office gives an example of software that improves a car breaking system would be patentable.