EU to Redefine Scope of Software Patents

karvind writes "According to story on ZDNet, the European Parliament (EP) has enlisted the help of intellectual property lawyers to amend the directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions so that companies are prevented from patenting pure software. According to article: "The ongoing argument over patents in the software industry revolves around the distinction between physical inventions that use software -- such as a car braking system -- and pure software." (See also this earlier story about the EU and software patents.)"

Comments

Re:Devil's Advocate

[harriet nyborg]

hazee, i am suprised that your intelligent observation has not been modded down to flamebait bu the rapid anti-patent groupthink of slashdot.

i have said many times that to think there is nothing left to invent in software, or that everything has already been invented, is to confuse software development with typing.

prohibiting patents on "software" would exclude every technical invention embodied in software from patent protection. speech codecs, digital decoders, compression algorithms, convolutional filters, etc. etc. etc. these are all technical inventions with a commercial application and a commercial value.

of course most people who post on slashdot have never invented anything in their lives - and never will. all they can do is copy other people's ideas and that is why they do not want software patents.

if open source could not copy what everyone else does, they would be gazing on a computer screen as blank as their stare and empty as their heads.

Re:This is stupid

[gowen]

Damascus steel was not lost because of profit-motivated secrecy on behalf of its inventors.