[mamon]

>> well... you can write a patent that is so obfuscated that the public cannot learn from it...

In such case the patent office should reject your patent claim as patent laws usually require that the description of the invention being patented should be understandable to professionals of relevant domain, who should be able to replicate it based solely on that description.

[tossaway1]

I assune you can patent part of an overall process (certainly that's the case in virtually all software patents), which could be a way to prevent others from replicating your process without explaining the whole thing, no?