Gaming

Algorithmic patents amount to patenting maths which, by very longstanding precedence, is not a thing, for good reason. Same goes for business methods and other stuff.

In the EU there's only one way to patent software and that's if you're using it to achieve direct physical ends. E.g. you can patent washing machine firmware in so far as you patent a particular way to combine sensor data to achieve a particular washing result. Rule of thumb: If, 30 years ago, you'd have an electromechanical mechanism to do the task then you can patent the software that's now replacing it.

Oh: It's also possible to patent silicon, that is, you can patent your hardware acceleration methods for video decoding. That doesn't extend to decoders running on general-purpose hardware, though.

If you want to monopolise your brand-new hash algorithm there's a simple way: Don't publish the source, use copyright to collect royalties... though that doesn't mean that reverse engineering is outlawed, especially if necessary for interoperability. Practically speaking nope hash algorithms just can't be protected which is fair and square because it's academia who comes up with that kind of stuff and we paid for it with taxpayer money. Want to make money off it? Get tenure.

The thing is, many physical patents are also describing extremely simple mechanisms or mere ideas for them. I don't think your criteria reflect reality, as much as I wish they did.

for practical physical good, some times a patent just means I did this first doesn't mean it's hard to do or replicate. ie. like the umbrella wedge/spring to make it open automatically. That's the part of ingenuity. And why I think the mini game during loading screen worth the patent.

I don't like algorithm patent because ultimately, it was there, if original sha hash wasn't developed, someone would come up with a different method that doing roughly the same. It's the math and other prior foundation in computer hasing/data processing provides the idea and how you can process and get the hash fast. so your newer arrangement of faster version(like different sorting algorithm) would not be possible without those other research.

ie. for my own example, my thesis involves doing polygon culling strategy, my base algorithm is totally base on math prediction as to what's the optimum I can achieve minimum culling checks. BUT, that algorithm is actually slower than when you implement the checks base on how GPU is doing the render plus cache efficiency. If I did not know or not aware how computer works from prior study, I can't figure out why my "optimum" algorithm is actually slower than sub-optimum checking strategy.

Say, what if SHA or whatever algorithms is implemented, and is actually very impactful to other application, which can be proven that anyone can naturally come to this conclusion by doing their own research, simply grant that patent impedes future development. Another computer graphic patent is the Joe Alter hair distribution, it has nothing to do with ingenuity and just because his dad is a good patent lawyer, it blocks any healthy competition from selling CG hair grooming product in US. If you check the patent itself, that was like trying to patent a math distribution over surface.