Software patents

[robinturner]

Now Europe seems also to be descending into the mire of software patents, I was wondering what it would take to make an idea unpatentable (i.e. put it in the public domain). Is it enough just to publish it anywhere (on LJ, for example), do you need to publish it in a certain medium (e.g. paper) or do you actually need to take out a pre-emptive patent? (I just found a neat software idea in a novel that would be implementable, but I don't have the skills to implement it - though for all I know it may have already been done).

Comments

European Vs American software patents

[aguirre.livejournal.com]

I heard somewhere that the american software patents are a lot easier to get than european software patents. For instance if you use a certain technique you can patent it, it doesn't have to be an entire program.

Although you do have to have the software written in order to get anything...