Patents: Firmware patents can be firm: Firmware-based inventions may be patentable, but there are traps for the unwary

More important than the much-argued issue of the patentability of software-based inventions is the patentability of firmware or microprocessor-based inventions. Most software cannot be protected by patent because it lacks the basic requirement of a patentable invention, that of not being obvious. A very complicated program - for example, one which converts Russian to English 6368355 will probably not be patentable, even though its development may have been very laborious and time consuming.