As part of a 3 year European Commission (EC) study1 on the effects of software patents on innovation we are involved in a multi-disciplinary effort to understand the effects of software patents. These effects are studied from legal, economical, and computer science perspectives.
This paper is a sequel to our [4]. In that paper a proposal is formulated for an IPR-based software engineering life cycle and it is argued that only when an IPR-based software engineering life cycle is used a rational strategy towards software patenting, software patent licensing as well as IPR defense is possible. Further an extensive discussion is given regarding the problem of so-called trivial patents. These seem to undermine the vitality and usefulness of the software patenting system. A number of examples of patents and patent applications that may be considered trivial is given. Long term strategies are discussed to remove trivial patents from the scene. Further a research agenda consisting of a number of promising research questions concerning software patenting is worked out in significant detail and several policy recommendations are made.
The goal of the current paper is to study the notion of invention in the realm of software. In Section 2 we start with the colloquial meaning of the word ``invention'' and gradually move on to legal and other aspects of this notion. In Section 3 we give a summary of the state of the art in software and how it is documented. The main topic of the paper is presented in Section 4 where we analyze what a software invention is. In Section 4 we formulate the conclusions and recommendations of this research.