IANAL, but I think many patent lawyers would suggest that Bob consider a provisional patent application.  This generally much cheaper to draft and file than a full patent application, it gives you an earlier filing date if you decide to go for a full patent, and makes your invention more likely to show up in a prior art search.  You'll still have to invest time, and $2,000-$3,000 dollars, but it will probably give Bob some extra protection against someone else patenting his software.<p><a href="http://inventors.about.com/od/provisionalpatent/a/Provisional_Pat.htm" rel="nofollow">http://inventors.about.com/od/provisionalpatent/a/Provisiona...</a><p><a href="http://www.ipwatchdog.com/patent/provisional-patents/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ipwatchdog.com/patent/provisional-patents/</a>