EU Rejects Software Patents

Finally some sense amidst all the chaos.
The vote was rejected 648 to 14 with 18 abstentions.
More information:
jmcc
The Register
RTE

By Michele Neylon

Michele is founder and CEO of Irish hosting provider and domain name registrar Blacknight.

4 comments

  1. Bear in mind that it may come back, and that it not being passed doesn’t stop the EU Patent Office from issuing more software patents (they’ve been issuing some, which is strictly speaking against the current rules). So yes, it’s better than the original one going through, but possibly not as good as the amended version going through.

  2. Rob
    I am all too aware that it may come back, but at least it hasn’t been passed this time.
    What worries me is the apathy among so many ICT companies combined with the pro-patent stance of some “representative” organisations
    M

  3. Not too surprising; for big companies, software patents are great. And many smaller companies don’t really seem to have any idea what they are.

  4. Rob
    I wouldn’t agree entirely. Software patents work in favour of Microsoft and *some* other corporations, but they actually work against a lot of other big companies.
    With regard to smaller companies education is really the key.
    The US has allowed patents to be granted for the most ridiculous aspects of software. We cannot allow EU countries to follow suit.

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