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European Commission Reverses its Views on Patents

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the maybe-not dept.

prostoalex writes "ZDNet UK News reports "The European Commission said last week that computer programs will be excluded from patentability in the upcoming Community Patent legislation, and that the European Patent Office (EPO) will be bound by this law". Politician Adam Gierek posted a question to European Commission asking the institution to clarify its standings on software patents."

1 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like that's good for open source... by Sheetrock · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    But I'm still not clear on how if you actually want to make a living selling software you create you can do so without being able to claim an intellectual property right.

    I know there are some success stories with selling support or other non-duplicateable services but that seems to suggest less serious attention to user interface design and such may become standard software practice.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.