Patents: Now that the summer break is over, software patents are back on the EU’s agenda. The FFII (via EDRI-gram) reports
On 24 September 2004, the European Council will probably meet to rubber-stamp the ‘political agreement’ achieved on 18 May 2004 on the highly controversial software patents directive (2002/0047 COM-COD).
According to the FFII the text was designed to mislead ministers about its real effects. ‘It consists of many sentences of the form or ‘software is … unpatentable, unless … [condition, which, upon closer scrutiny, turns to be always true]’.’ And, states FFII, ‘It can be said with certainty that only a minority of governments really agrees with what was negotiated, but several governments were misrepresented by their negotiators, who broke intra-ministerial agreements or even violated instructions from their superiors.’
More info:
- FFII Urgent call to National Governments and Parliaments (04.06.2004)
- FFII call for action against software patents (07.09.2004)
- FSF Europe open letter to EU presidency (06.09.2004)