[SC.LUG] [Fwd: [Fsfe-uk] UK appeal court upholds wonky pro-swpat ruling]

[Richard Smedley]

Short of chopping the head of SW Pats, and stuffing it with
garlic, there seems no way of stopping them rise from the
dead. It looks like the time has come to lobby for a clear 
EU-wide law to outlaw them, as a few pessimists envisaged
after the victory a couple of years ago :-/

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Ciaran O'Riordan <ciaran at fsfe.org>
To: fsfe-uk at gnu.org
Subject: [Fsfe-uk] UK appeal court upholds wonky pro-swpat ruling
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:25:55 +0100

Complete with gormeless pro-patent rhetoric, timesonline.co.uk reports that,
following the UK IPO's complaint against the High Court's pro-swpat ruling,
the UK Court of Appeal has rejected the IPO's appeal and has instead agreed
with the High Court that, for "complex software", software patents are
valid:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article4907993.ece

We previously saw a post-Nov-2009 swpat debate as an inevitability that we'd
have to prepare for whether we want it or not.  With this ruling, a new
EU-level legislative proposal is becoming something we might even push for.

(Nov 2009 is when a new European Commission will be chosen.  Commissioner
McCreevy said he'd make no further legislative proposals regarding swpats
during his term, so there's a good chance that something will be launched
when he is replaced.)

I put the relevent part of the European Patent Convention online here with
some links:
http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/why_european_software_patents_are_legally_invalid