Technology companies are particularly vulnerable to infringement litigation since their products can contain hundreds if not thousands of linked patented components critical to their basic operation.

It is not the policy of the EPO to require or examine source codes […]. Moreover, given the length and complexity of source code listings, which can often stretch to hundreds of pages, it would be quite impossible to examine them.

Source: European Patent Office brochure, url: http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-76937/epo-says-the-term-software-is-ambiguous-and-prefers-to-use-tautology-for-more-clarity