Z:gnu-www-ja-software-patents--57b762-Sometimes a specific algorithm/en

Sometimes a specific algorithm gets patented. For instance, there is a patent on an optimized version of the Fast Fourier Transform. It runs about twice as fast. You can avoid that by using the ordinary FFT in your program. That part of your program will take twice as long. Maybe that doesn't really matter, maybe that is a small part of the program's running time. Maybe if it is twice as slow, you won't really notice. Or maybe that means your program won't run at all because it will take twice real time to do its job. The effects vary.