In the US at least, code itself cannot be patented. A means of accomplishing something with software can, but not the code itself. This means that all the patent office receives is a diagram of what the software is supposed to do, rather than its source code. Having the source code publicly-available could help the open-source movement.
Software patents are very common and no, this has not helped the open source movement.
In the US at least, code itself cannot be patented. A means of accomplishing something with software can, but not the code itself. This means that all the patent office receives is a diagram of what the software is supposed to do, rather than its source code. Having the source code publicly-available could help the open-source movement.