Still no Software Patents

support for the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure

On September 24, 2003 the European Parliament approved in a plenary vote the proposed directive on "patentability of computer-implemented inventions" with a number of amendments. The amendments clearly restate the non-patentability of programming and business logic, and uphold freedom of publication and interoperation.

NLnet believes that this is a good step towards averting the danger of software patents that would prohibit effective development of free software and open source software in the way we have grown used to.

Unfortunately, we are unsure whether this vote has been decisive; apparently the European Commission is unhappy with the amendments on the directive, and it may decide to withdraw the entire directive instead of putting it into practice. This would leave a harmonised European patent legislation up in the air.

Thus we are glad that the FFII continues to monitor the situation closely, and recommend anyone to read their reports on the current situation, as found on http://swpat.ffii.org.