Software pioneer and holder of the first software patent, Goetz played a foundational role in defining software as a standalone commercial product.
In the early 1960s, the status of software as a standalone industry was unclear. Software was generally custom-developed for a single customer, bundled with hardware, or given away free. Goetz and ADR played a substantial role in defining software as a standalone product, and clarifying that it could be protected by intellectual property laws.
In 2007, Computerworld cited Goetz as an "Unsung Innovator" in the computer industry. He was named the "Father of Third-Party Software" by mainframezone.com. In late 2009, Goetz wrote an editorial in the patent blog Patently-O advocating software patents. Goetz argued that there is no principled difference between software and hardware patents and that truly patentable software innovations require just as much ingenuity and advancement as any other kind of patentable subject matter.
