question about software patents

Just one additional note to what Alan has stated in order to make things a bit clearer - a patent does not give you, as the patent holder/owner, the right to make, use, or sell your own invention - patent gives you, as the patent holder/owner, the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the patented invention. So if you have a patent on particular software, and someone is "copying" it, as Alan noted, you have to sue them for patent infringement. This is a common misconception about patents - people, in general, believe that once they have a patent on something, they themselves can automatically make, use, and sell the patented device, system, method, whatever, but that is not true - you prevent others from doing so.