
The first software patent was granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on April 23, 1968 on an application filed on April 9, 1965, Martin A. Goetz, a pioneer in the development of the commercial software industry, was the inventor of the first software patent ever granted, U.S. Patent No. 3,380,029.
A global coalition of more than 80 software companies, associations and developers has declared the 24th of September to be the « World Day Against Software Patents ». The Hindu, a national daily dedicated one page of its Bangalore edition to software patents and software freedom. Deepa Kurup contributed written two articles titled « Will patenting take the byte out of IT here? » and « How would it be if you read only one type of book? » which reflects some of the concerns of the Free/Libre/Open Source Software community.