European Union

Europe is different to the European Union which is different to the set of countries which are signatories of the European Patent Convention. However, the problems facing one of these is usually also facing, or potentially facing the others, so for simplicity and to reduce duplication, this page will deal with all three.

For current possible problems, see Current events.

Possible initiatives leading to swpats

• Legislation in the European Union
• A common court for patent litigation (as of 2009, this is being encouraged by the EU[1])

See also

• European Patent Litigation Agreement
• European Patent Office
• Current events
• EU software patents directive

Europe

• The European Patent Convention
• FSFE's software patent pages
• FFII - Europe's primary anti-swpat organisation

European Union

• Diagram of the "codecision" legislative process, and a textual explanation