[pbhjpbhj]

Mathematical methods (as such!) are a specific exclusion in Europe (EPC 52(2) &(3)).

Of course that as such gives you somewhere to hang your patent application if you can afford the patent lawyers fees to protect the monopoly.

[brlewis]

Mathematical methods are excluded in the U.S. too by case law (Benson, Flook, Diehr). But "law" in terms of what's on the books and "law" in terms of what happens when you go to court are two different things.