&gt; When is that the case? When is it not?<p>Can you name some specific thing where you think this would be unclear?<p>&gt; Are medical devices that run software excluded? Are all kinds (read most) imaginable consumer electronics also excluded (they also have some software)?<p>Do they consist of only computer software and a prior art computer?<p>It doesn&#x27;t say the device has to contain no software. If you come up with some new light sensor for a camera which is only useful in combination with a particular algorithm to interpret the output then you would be able to patent the sensor (hardware) but not the algorithm (software). If it&#x27;s just a new algorithm to interpret data from existing sensors then it&#x27;s a software patent.<p>I don&#x27;t see what part of this you find so perplexing. It is a software patent if running software is all that is required to infringe it.