Software apps and patent trolls: Should you be afraid?

For a very long time there has been a debate as to whether software is better protected by copyright or by patents. The State Street Bank case in 1998 (State Street Bank v. Signature
Financial Group, 149 F.3d 1368) (Fed. Cir. 1998) opened the floodgates to software patents in the US and it is only recently (due to In re Bilski, 545 F.3d 943, 88 U.S.P.Q.2d 1385 (Fed. Cir. 2008) and some other cases) that the flow has moderated a little. Over the same period, many thousands of software patents have been granted in Europe.