German High Court Declares All Software Patentable

FlorianMueller writes "Long gone are the times when Europe was that bastion of resistance against software patents and patents on such things as file systems were ruled invalid. In a decision published today, the Federal Court of Justice of Germany upheld a patent on the automatic generation of structured documents (such as XML/HTML) in a client-server setting. The ruling lays out general principles that go beyond the patent at stake: they tear down all barriers to software patentability in the largest EU member state, even though a European patent treaty has been adopted that was intended to exclude software from the scope of patentable subject matter. EU patent examiners recently warned against a drift toward software patents. Software patent critics in Europe fear this will spark more litigation on their continent and increasingly call for defensive measures."

Comments

Is it possible

[xednieht]

To patent a Wiener Schnitzel?

Re:Noooooooo !

[Anonymous Coward]

There goes the possibility for small innovative company to develop in a safe legal framework. Let me phrase my sentiment, on behalf of all my European colleagues, and in the immortal words of Spider Jerusalem : FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

I'm sorry, the repeated use of the word fuck in a series has been Patented.

Re:Show me the software!

[Snarf You]

If you make

I think you

Thanks Germany!

[mrpacmanjel]

First you unleash an insane dictator over most of Europe, encourage David Hasselhoff to keep singing (why?), think bailing out the Euro is a "good thing", produce annoyingly reliable cars and now decide software is patentable.

Thanks for nothing.

Re:Does it make a difference

[lgw]

You
do
not
have
to
press
return
after
each
line
on
the
Internet.