Unlike Copyright and Trademark protection, Patent protection for inventions is only available through filing and eventual issuance of a Patent by the Governmental authorities of the various countries. Products, like pharmeceutical products, and industrial processes, like methods for producing chemicals, can be protected by Patents. More and more, software is also becoming the subject of Patent protection. In consideration for the monopoly granted by the State, the patentee must disclose his or her invention. In order to be patentable and invention must be new, useful and non-obvious.
Patent protection applies therefore to technical inventions or innovations.
In the sixities, Patent protection was one of the first forms of protection that had been proposed for software. The evolution of Court judgements and legislation lead away from the idea and Copyright emerged as the method used to protect software. In the United States, the Patent and Trademark Office is now issuing more and more software patents as long as they meet the criteria of novelty, usefulness and non-obviousness. In Canada, the Patent Office has issued new guidelines that could also make patenting of software easier. If you have developed innovative software, you might think about the possibility of having it patented.