I think you have to be careful to separate out aspects of patentibility or patent lifecycle:
There is,
1. Patent application classification.
2. Patent application testing.
3. Patent infringement.
4. Patent legal validity.
5. Patent technical validity.
You are discussing classification, dated 1997, which can easily be misrepresented (or at least represented incompletely), as it is here.
In most jurisidictions around the world, there are very high thresholds for the first, second and third.
Both the US and Canada are unusual in having much lower thresholds for the first and second, especially in the case of business process which can be easily redefined to fall under open classifications like "art" in Canada. This is how Amazon were able to obtain their 1-Click patent, which is really a software patent (that also easily fails technical obviousness tests in most parts of the world) wrapped up in a business process and classified under "art".
The US is also unusual in having a low threshold for the third, infringement, due to their court system that very effectively supports patent trolls (for any type of patent, not just software).
Regardless of the sustainability of patenting software, the problem that is becoming clear is that waiting until the very final stages of the lifecycle to defend a patent system has very high irrecoverable structural costs and an impact far wider than the restricted economic activity to which the patent relates.
Comments
I think you have to be careful to separate out aspects of patentibility or patent lifecycle:
There is,
1. Patent application classification.
2. Patent application testing.
3. Patent infringement.
4. Patent legal validity.
5. Patent technical validity.
You are discussing classification, dated 1997, which can easily be misrepresented (or at least represented incompletely), as it is here.
In most jurisidictions around the world, there are very high thresholds for the first, second and third.
Both the US and Canada are unusual in having much lower thresholds for the first and second, especially in the case of business process which can be easily redefined to fall under open classifications like "art" in Canada. This is how Amazon were able to obtain their 1-Click patent, which is really a software patent (that also easily fails technical obviousness tests in most parts of the world) wrapped up in a business process and classified under "art".
The US is also unusual in having a low threshold for the third, infringement, due to their court system that very effectively supports patent trolls (for any type of patent, not just software).
Regardless of the sustainability of patenting software, the problem that is becoming clear is that waiting until the very final stages of the lifecycle to defend a patent system has very high irrecoverable structural costs and an impact far wider than the restricted economic activity to which the patent relates.