Since the introduction of personal computers, software has emerged as a driving force in the global economy and a major industry in its own right. During this time, the U.S. government has reversed its prior policy against software patents and is now issuing thousands of such patents each year, provoking heated controversy among programmers, lawyers, scholars, and software companies. This book is the first to step outside of the highly-polarized debate and examine the current state of the law, its suitability to the realities of software development, and its implications for day-to-day software development.

Written by a former lawyer and working software developer, "Inventing Software" provides a comprehensive overview of software patents, from the lofty perspectives of legal history and computing theory to the technical details and issues of actual patents. People interested in the legal aspect of software patents will find detailed technical analysis of actual patented software, the legal strategies behind the wording of the patents, and an analysis of the ease or difficulty of detecting infringements. Software developers will find ways to integrate patent planning into their standard software engineering practices, and a practical guide for studying and appraising their competitors' patents and safeguarding the value of their own. Intended primarily for programmers and software industry executives and managers, "Inventing Software" will also be useful, illuminating reading for attorneys and software company investors.

When this book first appeared in 1972, it was acclaimed as a revolutionary breakthrough in the study of late Medieval Ireland (prior to the English invasion in 1603) and of the autonomous lordships in to which it was divided. Since then this book has been repeatedly and extensively cited as an authority, but it has long been out of print. This new edition of a pioneering and brilliant survey work is revised and enlarged in the light of research, by the author and other scholars, carried out on the subject in the intervening period. New information on late Irish law and the institutions of the lordships is added, as well as illustrative matter.