EC patent plan returns
p2p news / p2pnet: Six months after the European Parliament rejected the EC technology patents directive, it’s back on the agenda.
Last year Microsoft’s Bill Gates threatened 800 Danish jobs if Denmark opposed the European Computer Implemented Inventions Directive, said Danish financial daily Børsen, quoted in Florian Mueller’s NoSoftwarePatents.com.
But, " It has been expected to return to the political agenda since July 2005 when the European Parliament voted unanimously to reject the directive on the patentability of computer-implemented interventions, CII," says Computer Business Review Online.
However, "Mueller has warned that it could allow software patents ‘by the back door’ if current European Patent Office case law is applied," it goes on.
"Defining what is patentable would be needed to really make Europe more competitive," it has Mueller saying.
"Mueller has called on supporters of the anti-software patent movement to ensure that their voice is heard and that a ‘waterproof’ exclusion of software from patentability be agreed before the Community Patent is adopted."
The consultation period, ends on March 31 and will be followed by a hearing, "which the Commission said it intends to hold in Brussels on June 13," adds Computer Business Review Online.
Also See:
800 Danish jobs – Gates blackmailed Danish gv’ment, February 15, 2005
Computer Business Review Online – European patent policy back on the IT agenda, January 17, 2006
