What i find is that patents on software just protect your intellectual property, it only protects the idea if one of your employees that gets smart and leaves your company and starts to compete with you doing the same thing with the same software processes. In software all that matters is the final result , and so the result can be gone about to acheive in many different ways. So my advice is to not worry about protecting your IP until you have enough money to go after those that are infringing on said patent.This is a good rule of thumb.Also make sure that your process is not "obvious"(example: one of the most obvious ways to measure liquid is by pouring it into a container that contains precise measurements/volume), you may be infringing on someone else's patent :)