I am not very familiar with software patents, just business process work. If you... | Hacker News

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wheelerwj on Nov 2, 2012 | parent | context | favorite | on: Richard Stallman: Let’s Limit the Effect of Softwa...

I am not very familiar with software patents, just business process work.

If you write a program in say... python which is open source. You can patent that program even though your work is based of something that is publicly available? Or can you only patent additional libraries/new languages?

jlgreco on Nov 2, 2012 [–]

Implementation is not required and are not in fact what is actually patented.

An implementation can implement something that is patented, but that does not mean the implementation is itself patented.

MS Word is not patented, but implements many patented concepts.

wheelerwj on Nov 2, 2012 | [–]

hmm, thanks.

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