Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

If you are relying on patent protection, being first to file is important, but software is often protected by copyright, and there, time of creation establishes at least a common-law copyright. I couldn't begin to speculate which form of protection would be more appropriate for you, and I suggest you have at least an initial conference with an I-P attorney near you, to see whether you should file for a statutory Federal-law copyright or whether your work would be patentable. I assume the program has not yet been written.

The patent laws changed recently and, while I'm not admitted to the patent bar, my understanding of the new law is that patents are no longer issued to the original inventor without regard to the date the patent application is filed. As I understand it, the patent now goes to the first to file.