Is a design pattern considered a patent?
+5
A:
No. A patent is a legal limited monopoly on a specific invention. A design pattern is a documented general approach to solving a common type of problem. They're two completely different things.
Wyzard
2010-02-25 15:52:23
I think the question he is getting at is... can something be both?
Neil N
2010-02-25 15:53:02
In some countries it may be possible to patent a design pattern so that nobody can implement it without licensing it from you, but the patent is still separate from the pattern itself. Just writing a pattern document doesn't provide any legal protection.
Wyzard
2010-02-25 15:58:34
But a pattern could be defined as an invention... or a business process which is patentable. Hell, Microsoft patented the IsNot operator in Visual Basic!
Nick
2010-02-25 16:04:46
Imagine if, in the early days of computer science, someone had patented the linked list.
Wyzard
2010-02-25 16:07:33
+2
A:
No.
Design Pattern: a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design
Patent: an official right to be the only person or company allowed to make or sell a new product for a certain period of time
Chris
2010-02-25 15:53:02
+1
A:
The question makes no sense. A patent is something you have to apply and pay for, and which is then granted by a patent office.
So a valid question is "could a design pattern be patented?" And the answer is: probably not. The patent offices in different countries have different standards on what can and cannot be patented, but the general gist is that you can only patent practical applications, not abstract ideas. So a design pattern would most likely not be patentable.
Michael Borgwardt
2010-02-25 15:58:00
A:
You potentially could try to patent a new design pattern, but I doubt it would be very successful depending on the pattern in question. There is so much documentation and so many books regarding patterns currently in existence, that you would definitely run afoul of the "novelty" rule and the "prior art" rules to patent exclusion.
Hell, if Microsoft can try to patent the Visual Basic IsNot operator, then someone could try to patent a design pattern.
Nick
2010-02-25 16:01:53
A:
I think the answer is a definite NO. Since design patterns are, by definition, not specifically invented, but rather observed and recognized in already existing real world applications, "prior art" (an obstactle to patentability) will always apply.
ammoQ
2010-02-25 16:14:31
A:
I don't believe a design pattern could be patented, due to it necessarily being in common use in development (a pattern).
An algorithm on the other hand, is definitely patentable.
Peter Alexander
2010-02-25 16:17:34