European Commission Stands by Patent Proposal

“The European Commission has turned down the request that a controversial IT patenting proposal be thrown out, the latest twist in the European Union’s software patents drama. The decision gives the go-ahead to send the proposal through to the next stage of the legislative process.

The proposed European Union-wide law on the “patentability of computer-implemented inventions” is heavily opposed by the European Parliament, which believes the measure would legalize software patents in Europe—bringing the EU closer to U.S. patent practice.

The implications for intellectual property issues worldwide are far-reaching, given the amount of legal entanglements between software (and operating system) competitors in the United States over patents—as in The SCO Group’s lawsuit against IBM, Novell Inc. and others.

The current proposal, which dates from May 2004, is opposed by open-source organizations and SMBs (small and midsized businesses), but it is backed by many larger IT companies, including Microsoft Corp.”

Full article: European Commission Stands by Patent Proposal