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September 25, 2003
EU Sanity on Software Patents
Patents are supposed to be for fundamental insights-- not a way to prevent competition. But that's what so-called "business method" patents allow-- monopoly patents on ways of doing business on the web that never had any patent protection when done in the non-cyber world.
The European Parliament just banned them, thank god:
The amendments tightened up the wording of the bill to make it explicit that no patent, like the one Amazon.com registered for its one-click online shopping method, can be registered in the union...The members of Parliament also expressly outlawed patents for algorithms, the mathematical equations in software programs, and they restricted the definition of the sort of software that should be eligible for a patent.We need the US Congress to follow suit as soon as possible.
Posted by Nathan at September 25, 2003 08:59 AM
