Wow, now that we know that software patents are not likely to be a threat to open source software in Europe, we have to ask ourselves whether or not patents in general are about expire for good!

Software patent campaigners have reacted with surprise to an apparent change in the European Commission’s stance on those patents.

The Commission said last week that computer programs will be excluded from patentability in the upcoming Community Patent legislation and that the European Patent Office will be bound by this law.
“The EPO would…apply and be bound by a new unitary Community law with respect to Community patents,” the Commission said in a statement. “The draft Community Patent regulation confirms in its Article 28.1(a) that patents granted for a subject matter (such as computer programs), which is excluded from patentability pursuant to Article 52 EPC, may be invalidated in a relevant court proceeding.”
This statement appears to contradict one made by the EC last year, when it said that the EPO would continue to grant software patents that make a technical contribution, despite the European Parliament’s decision to reject the software patent directive. That directive would have widened the extent to which software could be patented…. Source: News.com

Tags: software, patents, europe, patent office