Z:gnu-www-ja-danger-of-software-patents--7873c2-So, what does a patent do? A p/en

So, what does a patent do? A patent is an explicit, government-issued monopoly on using a certain idea. In the patent there's a part called the claims, which describe exactly what you're not allowed to do (although they're written in a way you probably can't understand). It's a struggle to figure out what those prohibitions actually mean, and they may go on for many pages of fine print.