Getting patents on anything in a contest logger should be very difficult because you'll almost certainly find a previous implementation of the same functionality. That constitutes "prior art" and can be used to invalidate a patent that claims exactly this functionality, at a later date.
And authors of contest logging software have been more than creative over the last 20 odd years to write incredibly versatile programs. Little chance to find anything that is patentable.
Apart from patents, there are other means of protection, though. You can claim the copyright on a piece of software (in some countries the claim needs to be explicit, in others it's implicit) which gives you or anyone you authorize the exclusive right to use this software.
There are many models in software licensing; this article may give you a little overview:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_licenseFinally, with the multitude of free and excellent contest logging software available, it'd be _very_ difficult to get a foot on the ground in the market for contesting software. There _are_ a few established products which require a paid license, but they are usually extremely advanced and mature products (like Win-Test), in which many thousand of man-hours of work have been put.
Something that works very well in my experience (especially for a project that was established for the benefit of a club) is a model where the users can voluntarily donate if they like the software.
Good luck with your project..
Fabian, DJ1YFK
