Wednesday 3 June 2009

Patents: I take my hat off to the man in red

The European Patent Office has a referral ongoing to the 'Enlarged Board of Appeal' covering interpretation of the European Patent Convention (EPC) in regard to software patents. Basically - under what circumstances can a computer programme be regarded as a technical invention and not a programme and therefore be patentable.

Submissions from individuals, companies and governments are now in... and are all available here. As you might suppose they cover a wide range of views with varying degrees of analysis and legal argument.

For a great presentation of innovation and open source, the negative impact of software patents and for a sensible plain language interpretation of the questions put I recommend the input from Redhat... The Piratpartiet input on this occasion I'm sad to say was by comparison somewhat lightweight... Sorry guys

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