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I get the technical difference but not the legal one. Why would one be OK but not the other?


Especially since that kind of legal aspect highly depend on how much companies are willing to fight, and the state of mind of the judges. And in a not so distant past, Intel warned MS and PC vendors doing some ARM stuff that it might be willing to fight. As for the state of mind of the judges, it is difficult to predict...

But it can be different. Depends on the magic formulas you use for your claims, and whether you are actually permitted to patent software in the first place (with or without other magic formulas usually stating that said software is executed by some hardware).

And in places where it is not supposed to be possible to patent software, patent offices are usually nevertheless accepting them, because it gives them money so why not? :P

TLDR it is a mess. Depends on an insane nmuber of contextual factors, and as unpredictable as the outcome of Oracle vs. Google before the verdict. Or maybe even more unpredictable.




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