[Fsf-friends] "Software-Patents" in Europe: The threat prevails

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

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"Software-Patents" in Europe: The threat prevails

Soon the European  Parliament and the  Council of  Ministers will again
decide about the legalisation and adoption of so-called "software patents"
in Europe, which are already used by large companies in other countries to
put competitors out of business. This can lead to the termination of many
software projects such as KNOPPIX, at least within Europe, because the
holders of the over 30,000 already granted "software patents" (currently
without a legal foundation) can claim exclusive rights and collect license
fees for trivial things like "progress bars", "mouseclicks on online order
forms", "scrolling within a window" and similar. That way, software
developers will have to pay the "software-patentholders" for using these
features, even in their own, completely self-developed applications, which
can completely stall the development of innovative software for small and
medium companies. Apart from this, the expense for patent inquiries and
legal assistence is high, for even trying to find out if the self-developed
software is possibly violating "software-patents", if you want to continue
to market your software.  Contrary to real patents, "software-patents" are,
in the draft proposed by the commission, monopolization of business ideas
and methods, even without any tangible technical implementation.

More about the current major problem at http://swpat.ffii.org/index.en.html
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Frederick Noronha (FN)                    Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia
Freelance Journalist                      P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436
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