Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Second Round of EU Patent Fight, Coming Up

Posted by timothy on from the don'tcha-love-patents dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Seems that last fall's victory over EU patent regulations was just round one. The current draft rejects all clarifying amendments made by the European Parliament, allowing direct patentability of computer programs. A net-wide protest is being organized on April 14."

3 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Software patents are good.. in general by Sexual+Ass+Gerbil · · Score: 0, Troll

    While there is some abuse of patents in the software industry, you have to give them some credit for building an industry. Take a look at Europe, where software patents are uninforceable. Exactly how big is the software industry in Europe? I'm not talking about open source me-too clones of commercial products. I'm talking about software that's revolutionary enough that you'd actually be willing to put down a few dollars to buy. It's true that MP3 compression technology was developed by a German company, but without U.S. patents on the technology, Fraunhofer would be long dead. Except for a few videogames, Europe isn't exactly the hotbed of new software technology.

    1. Re:Software patents are good.. in general by Sexual+Ass+Gerbil · · Score: 0, Troll

      Linux was started in Finland. However, Linus now lives in the U.S. where he makes money in the software industry and still has time for Linux. I don't see how having a successful software industry undermines open source developers. Europe, on the other hand, has mainly open source developers and very little industry. That means programmers have to make their living doing something else other than what they love, such as a boring job working at the local petrol station.

  2. Software patents are fair and just. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Software corporations spend BILLIONS of dollars and employ thousands and thousands of programmers to create patentable IP. If you guys had your way, all of this money would be thrown away and the world of software would be thrown back into the stone ages. Face it, guys, the time for patenting software is NOW.