European Commission Sparks Software Patent Debate

European legislators wanted to clarify the law; instead, they began a hot debate that threatens software patents' existence
If there's one thing that Tim Frain, the director of intellectual property at Nokia Corp., doesn't need to hear, it's that folksy old saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'
One of the most active lobbyists in Europe's increasingly heated debate over software patents, Frain knows all about ill-fated fixes.

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FSF Europe to EICTIA: Drop support for software patents

"Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, has written a letter to Rudy Provoost, president of the European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association, to explain why software patents are a bad idea. Quoting Bill Gates own observations about the nature of software patents, and presenting an interesting hypothetical about the the state of science today if Pythagoras had developed his theorem under a system where ideas are patented, Grev shreds the duplicitous claims of those who back the legalization of monopoly power to seize and steal ideas through the device of software patents. [...]

"Note: The European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA) combines 32 national ICT/CE associations from 24 European countries with 48 direct company members. EICTA altogether represents more than 10.000 enterprises in Europe with more than 2 million employees and revenues of over 200 billion. The Association supports the monopolisation of software ideas heavily. Mr Provoost is president of Eicta and represents Philips Consumer Electronics as Senior Vice President and Chief Executive Officer."

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India Reverses Software Patent Rules

The Financial Express reports that since the Indian patent office has reversed its earlier ruling that embeded software could be patented. Patents issued under the old rules may be cancelled and the article points out that "Legal experts point out that software-related patents already granted could be successfully challenged in courts, given the clarification of the law in the recent amendment." The patents that were issued were largely to foreign companies including LG, Nokia, Siemens, Philips and Samsung, and were seen as harmful to the fledgling local industry. There's obvious parallels here to the effect that allowing software patents would have on the New Zealand industry. Let's hope parliment acquires a clue sometime in the near future.