If you’re new to the world of software patents, here’s a short introductory video to the issues raised in this debate (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). It explains how software patents inhibit innovation, about the high cost of registering and challenging a patent and how it excludes small players from the market.

Another key point made in this clip is how software development is an ‘instruction’ rather than a invention as such. The argument  is that software development is a set of instructions which are written, and then implemented by the machine,  like “a game, business method or abstract idea”.

I’d be interested to hear what software developers out there think about this point – when you’re writing code are you ‘inventing’ or ‘instructing’?