>In the second case, you're not patenting the algorithm, because people remain free to use the algorithm to do things other than sorting lists of restaurant recommendations.
I know this wasn't your example originally, but it does exemplify a common problem: There is nothing special about sorting restaurant recommendations vs. sorting some other such thing. If you have an unpatentable algorithm which is good at sorting lists of anything it shouldn't become patentable just because you claim it as "sorting restaurant recommendations." Mixing an unpatentable algorithm with a totally obvious application of it shouldn't get you a patent.
>Ultimately you have to tie it back to the purpose of the property right. Why does someone have a legal right to a particular glob of atoms, or a particular string of bits, or a particular series of steps of some algorithm in some specific context?
So why should someone have a legal right to a particular series of steps of some algorithm in a specific context? Why should adding an arbitrary context make it patentable if it wouldn't have been otherwise?
> I know this wasn't your example originally, but it does exemplify a common problem: There is nothing special about sorting restaurant recommendations vs. sorting some other such thing. If you have an unpatentable algorithm which is good at sorting lists of anything it shouldn't become patentable just because you claim it as "sorting restaurant recommendations." Mixing an unpatentable algorithm with a totally obvious application of it shouldn't get you a patent.
Totally correct. The first requirement to patent something it that it should not be a trivial invention (something that is so easily derived from something else). But most patents are, however, trivial in the software world. That is a big issue.
I know this wasn't your example originally, but it does exemplify a common problem: There is nothing special about sorting restaurant recommendations vs. sorting some other such thing. If you have an unpatentable algorithm which is good at sorting lists of anything it shouldn't become patentable just because you claim it as "sorting restaurant recommendations." Mixing an unpatentable algorithm with a totally obvious application of it shouldn't get you a patent.
>Ultimately you have to tie it back to the purpose of the property right. Why does someone have a legal right to a particular glob of atoms, or a particular string of bits, or a particular series of steps of some algorithm in some specific context?
So why should someone have a legal right to a particular series of steps of some algorithm in a specific context? Why should adding an arbitrary context make it patentable if it wouldn't have been otherwise?