ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how far the isomorphism and formal connection extend the asserted basis of the non-patentability of mathematics to software. A starting point in assessing the expressiveness of code is to say something more about the medium in which software is constructed – the programming language. In assessing any computer-related invention, it must be remembered that the programming is done in a computer language. The programmed computer has all the fascination of the pinball machine or the jukebox mechanism, carried to the ultimate. The physicality of software has been located by courts in the computer hardware on which software eventually executes, and the medium on which software is stored before execution. Software development is a creative, artistic pursuit, governed by aesthetic considerations. The chapter looks at the patentability of software, as determined by the characteristics of the activity involved in creating it, namely programming.
