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EU software patents directive

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.)

Who was involved

Organisations active against software patents

Organisations active for software patents

Organisations yet to be classified

  • Google - represented by Mrs. Moll[3]
  • Novell - only expressed itself once, in a completely ambiguous manner

Related pages on ESP Wiki

Some people involved

Hundreds of people were involved, but to keep this list reasonable, these are the ones for whom ESP Wiki has articles:

External links

References