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Europeans Still Battling Software Patents

Posted by michael on from the long-haul dept.

rimberg writes "The FFII in the UK is issuing an alert for all supporters to write to their MPs -- this weekend . In September the European Parliament voted for strong restrictions on software patents. But these could be set aside at a meeting of the EU's Competitiveness Council of Ministers on 10 November. The ministers' meeting is to be "prepared" at a meeting of senior patent officials from across Europe even sooner: this Thursday 23 October. Unless they can be convinced otherwise before 10 November, it is believed that UK ministers will push for the Council to adopt a November 2002 draft text, which is even worse than the infamous McCarthy report. The European Parliament's rules for second reading make it very difficult for MEPs to fix a bad text from the Council. The FFII says it desperately need a lot of letters to go out to MPs this weekend to tell the Government how bad the November 2002 draft is. More information at FFII-UK."

2 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Ok, I give up... by 3seas · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why does it never seem to stop, this desire to place constraints on consumer choice?

    People get tired of the constraints being placed on them so they create their own, only to then have a persistant effort to take their choice away from them.

    With technology making it easier and easier to create, you'd think the exclusive rights would get shorter and shorter, so as to re-emburse for R&D.

  2. Meanwhile, back in the U.S... by harriet+nyborg · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Do we have anything going on in Congress to limit the scope and term of software patents..

    Unlike the effort in Europe to actually change the law, software patents in the US are a result of the US Supreme Court's interpretations of existing law.

    The US Congress played no "direct" role in the creation of software patents in the US, rather it was a series of US Supreme Court decisions (Gottschalk vs. Benson - 1972), (Parker vs. Flook - 1978), Diamond vs. Chakrabarty - 1980), and (Diamond vs. Diher - 1981) which expanded the scope of patents to cover software.

    The US Congress did, however, during the 1990's change the laws to shorten the term of all US patents to 20 years.

    Hopefully, the European Parliament will be able to see through the dis-information spread by the FFII, the Eurolinux something or other, and pass meaningful legislation this time.

    Let us also hope that members of the Open Source movement will refrain this time from sending death threats to MEPs who do not support their radical and uninformed position.