Has anyone ever patented their app? Any recommendations as to whether to do it or not?
Hello,
If you post your code here, then I will take a look. Not that I have expert knowledge, but I will take a look, maybe.
Otherwise, such a unspecific question is not really answerable. There are people they take a lot, really a lot, of money to give you a maybe, really maybe, a good advice. Also from country to country it’s different. For germany: Software is not patentable as long they have not enough Technizität. Technizität: I hope this wonderful german word helps. No, okay. There are people they take a lot, really a lot, of money to say more of these wonderful words.
So, maybe, it is a good idea, that you post your complete code here, that the swarm intelligence give you a good advice…and that all for free. Also sarcasm its for free.
Best regards, anna-liebt
Don’t consider this legal advice, but my understanding is that the fundamental difference between copyright and patent is that patents are for ideas, while copyright is for implementations of those ideas. So patenting an app doesn’t make much sense; copyright would be the appropriate venue.
Not legal advice below, just opinions.
I don’t think it works that way, at least not in the US. Besides, a lot of the underlying code in any app is either open source or owned and licensed from the platform owner.
For example, you probably cannot patent the portions of the app that are Ionic or Angular. You may be able to patent portions of an app if they qualify as unique and new process. You would have to seek legal advice on that.
You would, however have copyright protections on what you write (or have written for you).
Here’s LegalZoom’s take on it.
From my experience dealing with a copyrighting law firm, patents are only applicable when one invents / creates a new technology (or has an idea that qualifies). If it’s just an idea and there is no finished product, you file an intent to patent that lasts 6 months or a year, cant recall exactly.
As far as mobile applications, all you’re doing is using existing technology and applying it in unique ways which allows for copyrighting.
So as I understand it, this would fall under the copyright umbrella, not the patent umbrella.
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