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Patent helped managers, programmers and lawyers at young software firms feel as if they were forming an industry of their own

In 1968 Martin Goetz secured a patent for data-sorting mainframe software beginning the market for third-party software.

In 1968, nearly a decade after he and several other partners started the company Applied Data Research, Martin Goetz received his patent, for data-sorting software for mainframes. It was major news in the industry: An article in Computerworld magazine bore the headline "First Patent Is Issued for Software, Full Implications Are Not Known."

In 1968, nearly a decade after he and several other partners started the company Applied Data Research, Goetz received his patent, for data-sorting software for mainframes.

Martin Goetz, who wrote the first software patent in the US and was known as the 'father of third-party software', has died at 93.In 1968, nearly a decade after Goetz and his partners started the company called Applied Data Research, he ...

Martin Goetz, who wrote the first software patent in the US and was known as the father of third-party software, has died at 93.

“I knew at some point in time the patent office would recognize” computer software, he said. It happened in 1968, helping to ignite the software market.