Software Patents Move Forward In The EU, Despite Cluelessness On The Issue
from the oh-great dept
Just as we noted that some of the politicians deciding whether or not Europe should allow software patents are so clueless on the issue that they not only don't understand the differences between software patents and patents on other types of inventions that they don't know the difference between patents and copyrights. Isn't it great that those most clueless on the law get to decide the laws for us? With that in mind it looks like one of the last roadblocks to stopping software patents in Europe has been passed by as the Legal Affairs Committee decided to push the proposal forward while rejecting hundreds of amendments that would have, at the very least, made it more difficult to get a software patent. So, while plenty of countries (only once the issue was clearly explained to its politicians) have been realizing that this issue is bad for innovation, it appears that a very careful lobbying effort has made sure that software patents are going to get approved almost purely because some bureaucrats didn't want to get in the way of the momentum of a very bad policy, despite being told to start the debate over again. As for who stands to benefit, just take a look at who's cheering on the move forward. This isn't about innovation at all -- which is what patents are supposed to be about. It's about allowing incumbents to stifle innovation by making the barriers to entry way too high for new entrants to actually do any innovating at all.
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Clueless?
My $.02
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