Perhaps for those industries patents are a better fit and more standard practice. My personal opinion based on observations of patents in software is that they inhibit innovation.
Invariably in a race to the bottom everyone loses.
Invariably in a race to the bottom everyone loses.
Pharma industries live and die on patents, today, and in the UK they are over-represented in any lobbying effort on the subject. Most politicians don't know/care about software patents, but they will have been lobbied by the likes of AstraZeneca and they will write legislation with that sector in mind, mostly.