Commercialization of software

In most cases, the complex software developments of “Research Software Engineers” cannot be protected by patents (computer-implemented inventions). Instead, exploitation on a copyright basis applies here. We recommend transparently documenting all programmed or installed software components or integrated libraries with a “Software Bill of Materials” (SBOM) right from the start of the software development process and, ideally, making them available automatically. This is an important prerequisite for the sustainability and usability of software under open source or proprietary license models.