It’s been along time coming, but European countries are starting to really think hard about the implications of the proposed software patent directive that is being discussed by the EU at present. Poland has just withdrawn their support for the directive in it’s current form.
This is good because it stops companies like this one who’s entire business is to sit around and come up with or buy ideas that they can patent. They then wait around for someone else to do the hard work, and then they go and hit them up for easy cash. It’s similar to domain cyber squatting, but legal and with allot more money involved. (Patent cyber squatting?)
Europeans have another reason to ditch the idea of software patents. Microsoft is an American company, and right now the Europeans seem to want to distance themselves from the US in any way possible. Being tied to MS software is not something they want forced on them. Microsoft has recently indicated that at some stage it or someone similar will come after Linux users for patent infringement, (thinly veiled threat?) Having a system like that of the US where people can patent ideas like computer to-do lists is going to cause massive problems to Linux uptake in the future, even if they patent threat is non-factual. Read more about Poland dropping out here.
Franki
