I am a newbie here, so direct me to the right thread if this question has been asked before. I recently talked to an IP attorney and he stated that any "method" or "program" ran on a "regular computer" is not patentable - citing the 2014 Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International case. I only read that Wikipedia article and it didn't clarify anything. Seems my lawyer wanted to error on the safe side.
Here's what I have. I created a very non-obvious Java framework that leverages the latest language features, as well, as several open-source libraries to achieve hundred-times software development productivity companies like Oracle would kill for. I do not want to sell my framework, but solely use it to create my own enterprise software (finance, accounting, and other automation systems often referred to as ERP) 100+ times cheaper and better.
It's using the same building blocks: databases, etc. though in a completely different (from the mainstream) manner. It is simple and compact once one reads the documentation - based on several recent Computer Science ideas, but it doesn't have a single "wow".
Is it patentable? Perhaps you know some other programming library/framework example (non open source obviously). Or it's gotta be a yet another official "new programming language", which I am sick of. Patent trolls aside I've seen people patenting finished custom systems they did at work like "automated Mortgage Loan Origination System". Perhaps the Alice ruling aimed to stop that. It's vague. So where are the boundaries in 2015?