Goetz and ADR played a substantial role in defining software as a standalone product, and clarifying that it could be protected by intellectual property laws.

Data sorting was an important issue for the mainframe computers of the day, many of which used magnetic tape for storage.

The idea of off-the-shelf commercial software, with a standard feature set used in the same way across a wide range of customers, did not yet exist.

Other computer manufacturers also refused to license Autoflow, so in 1965 Goetz decided to market it directly to RCA mainframe users.

The RCA version of Autoflow sold only two licenses, but it became a commercial success in subsequent years as it was advertised, improved, and ported to other mainframes.