Unfortunately the US Patent Office is driving the whole herd of PTO's of the world before them. Today you can get a patent on _anything_ as long as you limit the field it applies to. In programming the US PTO has recently begun not only accepting innovative algorithms - which might have a resonable scientific height for patents - but also implementations which IMHO is creative engineering, but still only engineering. The driving force in this are the major US companies who trade patents for patents, thus keeping everyone else out.
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Unfortunately the US Patent Office is driving the whole herd of PTO's of the world before them. Today you can get a patent on _anything_ as long as you limit the field it applies to. In programming the US PTO has recently begun not only accepting innovative algorithms - which might have a resonable scientific height for patents - but also implementations which IMHO is creative engineering, but still only engineering. The driving force in this are the major US companies who trade patents for patents, thus keeping everyone else out.