[Fsfe-uk] Software patents

[Phil Driscoll]

I recently emailed my (labour) MEP regarding software patents.

Below is his response. If anyone who is more clued up about this issue than I 
am has ideas for a suitable response, please let me know.

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The patenting of computer-implemented inventions is not a new phenomenon: 
patents involving the use of software have been applied for and granted since 
the earliest days of the European Patent Office (EPO). Applications are on 
the increase, at the EPO 110,000 applications were received, 16,000 of them 
dealt with inventions in computer-implemented technologies. Concern has been 
raised that if matters are left as they are, Europe will drift towards 
extending the scope of patentability to inventions, which traditionally would 
not have been patentable. If the EU does not take the step to develop its 
competence with regard to computer-implemented inventions, then the EPO and 
its boards of appeal will continue to be the main arbitrators of the law.

The aim of the proposal going through the European Parliament is to harmonise 
and clarify the law, to stop the expansion of the patents system, and stem 
the current drift towards broadening the scope of innovation in software that 
can be patented. There is a need to ensure that patents for 
computer-implemented inventions are granted on the same footing across the 
European Union and that national courts can deal with contested patents on 
the basis of uniform principles and within an EU legal framework. An EU 
directive should not allow the extension of patentability, but neither should 
it exclude patent protection altogether. Small software developers should not 
have to face a minefield of poorly granted patents for obscure or obvious 
patents. The Directive must allow open source software to flourish. 

Labour Euro MPs will continue to monitor closely the directive through the 
European Parliament.
-- 
Phil Driscoll