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Difference between revisions of "EU software patents directive"

(The European Patent Office (EPO) had already been granting software patents, despite "programs for computers" being excluded from patentability in the European Patent Convention. The Euro)
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The '''EU software patents directive''' was a proposal by the European Commission to allow the patenting of software ideas in the [[European Union]].  The proposal was the subject of intense public debate and lobbying and was eventually rejected by the European Parliament in 2005 by a massive majority.
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The '''EU software patents directive''' was a proposal by the [[European Commission]] to allow the patenting of software ideas in the [[European Union]].  The proposal was the subject of intense public debate and lobbying and was eventually rejected by the European Parliament in 2005 by a massive majority.
  
==September 2003==
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==The proposal==
  
* [http://eupat.ffii.org/lisri/03/plen0924/index.en.html EU Parliament Votes for Real Limits on Patentability]
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The [[European Patent Office]] (EPO) had already been granting [[software patents]], despite "programs for computers" being excluded from patentability in the [[European Patent Convention]].  The European Commission's proposed legislation would have replaced the European Patent Convention with a directive which copied EPO practice.  The European Commission and pro-software-patent lobby groups claimed that this was simple "harmonisation".
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==Timeline==
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* The [[European Commission]] published a proposal to introduce legislation which would clearly allow software ideas to be patentable
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* September 2003: [http://eupat.ffii.org/lisri/03/plen0924/index.en.html EU Parliament Votes for Real Limits on Patentability]
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* 2004: [[Council of Ministers]] discards the European Parliament's amendments
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* June 2005: The [[European Parliament]] rejects the directive outright
  
 
==Amendments==
 
==Amendments==

Revision as of 13:27, 21 September 2009

The EU software patents directive was a proposal by the European Commission to allow the patenting of software ideas in the European Union. The proposal was the subject of intense public debate and lobbying and was eventually rejected by the European Parliament in 2005 by a massive majority.

The proposal

The European Patent Office (EPO) had already been granting software patents, despite "programs for computers" being excluded from patentability in the European Patent Convention. The European Commission's proposed legislation would have replaced the European Patent Convention with a directive which copied EPO practice. The European Commission and pro-software-patent lobby groups claimed that this was simple "harmonisation".

Timeline

Amendments

List of letters written to MEPs

(This list will be very long when completed, so will probably be split off into its own page.)

Related pages on ESP Wiki

External links