Abstraction orientated property of software and its relation to patentability

Abstract

It is often discussed that software possesses some unique properties different from other engineering products, which make it difficult to fit into the framework of legal protection by the patent law. This paper focuses on one of the salient properties of software, i.e. its orientation towards abstraction and generalization.

First, we clarify the concept of abstraction in software and algorithms: what it means and how important it is. Then, we take a case study of the example problem presented at the SOFTIC Symposium '93 and show that the efforts made to write patentable claims for software-related inventions are being targeted towards the opposite of this abstraction/generalization direction. Lastly, we make discussions based on the above observations and present our opinion.