European parliament ditches software patent bill 17322
The big problem with any attempt to patent software is that one has to consider prior art. Since software was almost never patentable by anybody until the late 1990s, thare are nearly 50...
snips
I rather doubt it. I'm not sure the details of *their* approach, but the more local approach is simply garbage. It has nothing to do with protecting IP, being instead a weapon to use against unwanted compebreastion.
This is most easily seen by the ongoing flood of patent reports for things which are either long-established practice, or of such broad scope as to cover even trivialities.
Patents were *intended* to allow the creator of a new device or process to publish his works, sell his products, even let others sell products based on his works, while ensuring that ultimately, he was rewarded for his works.
Software patents, in their current guise, don't do that; basically it seems that pretty much anything one can write a document for can be patented, whether they created it or not. How does this protect the creators of the process? It doesn't.
If their approach was a badly screwed up as the one this side of the pond, it *deserves* to be chucked. Which isn't to say it can't be replaced with something which actually does meet the spirit and intent of the patent system.
European parliament ditches software patent bill 17323
Linux Advocacy from Newsgroups