Comments on: European Parliament Rejects Software Patents http://almaer.com/blog/european-parliament-rejects-software-patents blogging about life, the universe, and everything tech Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:06:53 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: David Coleman http://almaer.com/blog/european-parliament-rejects-software-patents/comment-page-1#comment-19154 David Coleman Fri, 18 Feb 2005 22:37:31 +0000 http://almaer.com/blog2/european-parliament-rejects-software-patents#comment-19154 The whole debate got totally confused. The fact is that software is not patentable in Europe and nobody was ever suggesting it should be. But, inventions which are implemented using computers can be patented, provided that the invention satisfies all the usual criteria for patentability, i.e., they must be novel and inventive. But the MPs pushing it forward were just totally confused, and the draft just ended up looking rubbish. The problem is that (i) Europe doesn't want to go the way of the US where business methods are patented and (ii) some groups have either got the wrong end of the stick or are just totally against patents full-stop! The whole debate got totally confused. The fact is that software is not patentable in Europe and nobody was ever suggesting it should be. But, inventions which are implemented using computers can be patented, provided that the invention satisfies all the usual criteria for patentability, i.e., they must be novel and inventive. But the MPs pushing it forward were just totally confused, and the draft just ended up looking rubbish.

The problem is that (i) Europe doesn’t want to go the way of the US where business methods are patented and (ii) some groups have either got the wrong end of the stick or are just totally against patents full-stop!

]]>