On Monday 14 March 2005 17:18, Stephen Williams wrote: > No, they're not having legal issues. There just making some misguided > protest about a subject they clearly don't understand. The software > patents directive is a non-issue blown out of all proportion. > > My partner is a eurpoean patent attorney so knows what's really going > on here, i've also spoken to people in her firm about this. This > directive does nothing more than to set into law how patenting of > software is _currently_ handled. The laws which have been applied up > till this point were not designed with software in mind, this is what > is being but right.
No offence, but DUH!!! Of course a patent attorney is going to say that this law is all hunky-dory, it's his future bread and butter!!! Pure software patents are not currently legally enforcable in a number of European countries. The ambiguous wording of the CIID opens the back door for pure software patents, and there is a whole saga going on with the European Parliament at loggerheads with the European Commission over amendments and procedure. I suggest you head over to www.groklaw.net for a thorough and informative view of what's going on. It may (debatably) be biased the other way, but at least you'd have both sides of the argument. Really! Would you ask a fox to guard the chicken coop? However, you are right that the current patent law was not designed with software in mind. You're incorrect if you think that this law will put anything right. > Quite simply, the directive is deisgned to maintain the current status > quo with regards to patenting of soatware, the whole point behind it > is that the law is clarrified whilst having _no_ material impact. Wrong! Tell "_no_ material impact" to all the small and medium business (the ones that usually drive innovation) that will be driven out of business by this law. Innovation through litigation? -- Steve Boddy
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