Compliance Toolkit
Story: EC pushes on with patent directive
Posted by: Anonymous (Tuesday 22 February 2005, 2:00 PM)
The Commission have done the right thing, undemocratic as the process may have been.
The proposed directive does not "legalise" software patenting, but instead formalises the status quo in the EC, as currently practiced by the European Patent Office.
Software patents have been available in Europe for many years.
The goal of the directive is to PREVENT PATENT LAW SLIPPING TOWARDS CURRENT PRACTICE IN THE US, where shoddy software patents are granted on a regular basis, creating uncertainty for programmers.
The irony is that the open source community is seeking to prevent the very thing that will protect them against a proliferation of dubious software patents.
My message to the open source community is that patents are a commercial reality, and that given that is the case, it is better to restrict software patenting to those of high quality (this will be the effect of the directive), as opposed to following the route taken by the US.
Sanity must prevail.
Full Talkback thread
Story: EC pushes on with patent directive
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Perhaps the real topic here isn't software patents... Arthur B. -
The comission is just a bunch of lobbyist, no... Anonymous -
The Commission have done the right thing, undemocr... Anonymous -
Mr. Trainee Patent Attorney, you've been badly inf... Arthur B.
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Arthur B, please find my response below in pa... Anonymous
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>One only has to look at the kind of software... TheMoai
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European Software Patent Horror Gallery
http://t... Arthur B.
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Mr. Trainee Patent Attorney, dealing with software... Arthur B.
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Arthur B., more replies below.
Mr. Trainee Pa... Anonymous
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To put an end to this "discussion".
Soft... Arthur B. -
TheMoai, since I only mentioned software patents t... Arthur B.
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