Wednesday, July 6th, 2005, 2:13 pm
No Software Patents in Europe
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ood news have just arrived: the EU has rejected, with a crushing majority, the software patent bill.
The Register states:
The European Parliament has voted by a massive majority to reject the software patents directive, formally known as the Directive on the Patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions. The vote to scrap the bill was passed by a margin of 648 votes to 14, with 18 abstentions.
Some outrageously simple algorithms have recently been filed as patents. More notably:
- Microsoft filing a patent for address book encapsulated objects (i.e. more proprietary)
- Amazon with the ‘one-click shopping’
- Leaving the best for last: Amazon patenting the recommendation of books based on pages previously viewed
Luckily, such insanity is unlikely to invade Europe.
July 8th, 2005 at 10:56 am
Just returned from vacation to this good news! There is still some sanity among politicians. Yay!