EU Rejects Controversial Software Patents Proposal

The European Parliament on Wednesday morning put the final nail in the coffin of the European Union's controversial IT patenting proposal, voting overwhelmingly to reject the proposed directive.

The Parliament voted 648 to 14 with 18 abstentions to reject the directive, which would have become EU law if approved in its current form. The European Commission, which originated the proposal, said it respected the Parliament's decision and said it would stand by its earlier promise not to put forward another proposal on the issue.

The directive was intended to harmonize EU member states' laws on the patentability of IT-related inventions, but the real focus of interest was software. As originally drafted, the law would have put a relatively permissive system into place, which critics said would legitimize software and business-practice patents, bringing the EU into line with patent practices in the United States and Japan. Currently, patents on pure software and business processes are not enforceable in the EU, making it impossible for large companies to bring their patent arsenals into play in the region.

For the rest of this eWeek story EU Rejects Controversial Software Patents Proposal.

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.