[Nottingham] Summary of start of EU Patent Debate

[Robert Davies]

Looks like the penny dropped, though a directive has been passed, the 
ammendments are described by the FFII in these terms,  "clearly restate the 
non-patentability of programming and business logic, and uphold freedom of 
publication and interoperation", reversing the thrust of the directive.

http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=79769&cid=7042870
http://lwn.net/Articles/50624/
Gory details - http://swpat.ffii.org/news/index.en.html#swnplen030923

There is now the problem, that the Governments and commission will reject the 
parliaments' well considered ruminations, and try to pander to lobbying from 
the patents lobby.  There may also be a few glitches, due to contradictions 
left in, apparently they had 70+ ammendments to vote on in 40 minutes.

So if this pans out, as it seems, we have to switch sides on the EU Patents  
directive and make sure, governments accept this decision!

Rob