Editing Software patent (section)

==Early example of a software patent==
On 21 May 1962, a British patent application entitled "''A Computer Arranged for the Automatic Solution of [[linear programming|Linear Programming]] Problems''" was filed.<ref name="BP-patent">{{cite patent|country=GB|number=1039141|title=A computer arranged for the automatic solution of linear programming problems by British Petroleum, Patrick Vincent Slee and Pauline Margaret Joyce Harris}}</ref> The invention was concerned with [[Out-of-core algorithm|efficient memory management]] for the [[simplex algorithm]], and could be implemented by purely software means. The patent struggled to establish that it represented a 'vendible product'. "The focus of attention shifted to look at the relationship between the [unpatentable] computer program and the [potentially patentable] programmed computer".<ref>{{cite book|last=Bellido|first=Jose|year=2017|title=Landmark Cases in Intellectual Property Law|publisher=Hart Publishing}}<br/></ref> The patent was granted on August 17, 1966, and seems to be one of the first software patents, establishing the principle that the computer program itself was unpatentable and therefore covered by copyright law, while the computer program embedded in hardware was potentially patentable.<ref>{{cite book|last=Beresford|first=K|year=2000|title=Patenting Software under the European Patent Convention|location=London|publisher=Sweet & Maxwell|page=4}}<br/>{{cite journal|url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2003_1/kretschmer/|title=Software as Text and Machine: The Legal Capture of Digital Innovation|first=Martin|last=Kretschmer|journal=Journal of Information Law & Technology |place=Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management, Bournemouth University|date=4 July 2003}}</ref><ref name="rdbmsearlyyearsoh20070612">{{Cite interview |interviewer=Burton Grad |title=RDBMS Plenary 1: Early Years |url=https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2013/05/102702562-05-01-acc.pdf |page=22 |access-date=2025-05-30 |publisher=Computer History Museum |date=2007-06-12}}</ref>