Patenting software is counter-productive, patenting something like a shader technique is borderline stupid.
Think about it... When you patent something, you submit a lot of technical details, documentation etc etc - explaining what the patent covers. So anyone can go and see how you do things, read up, maybe even see the source code.
If you don't patent, then you don't have to explain anything, all people will have to go on is what you feel like telling them, or reverse engineering, either way it's about a fraction as useful as a patent document would be.
Often, the smartest ideas are better not patented, rather kept secret and not available to competitors. I think though, that most trailblazer developers like Carmack just like to be the first, they don't necesserily mind being copied, just so long as they get dibs on the bragging rights
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I got a fever, and the only prescription, is more memes.
