Holding software implemented method, system, and product inventions to be patent-ineligible could cause new software protection mechanisms to prohibit unauthorized use, sale, or reverse engineering of such systems.
For example, in order to frustrate reverse engineering, developers may utilize modern techniques to incorporate software implemented solutions into field-programmable chips, even at the loss of design flexibility or system performance. Developers may incorporate reverse engineering blocking mechanisms into product design. Further, developers may even choose to eliminate distribution of software documentation in order to shield the nature of such inventions outside of their companies. More employees may be required to sign covenants not to compete. Thus, we could see a return to the economic landscape of marketing and sale of software-implemented systems in the 1960s and 1970s, in which the design and implementation details relating to software-implemented innovations were protected through secrecy agreements.
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