A 2006 retrospective

A 2006 retrospective

Posted Dec 21, 2006 8:14 UTC (Thu) by hingo (subscriber, #14792)
Parent article: A 2006 retrospective

Your editor predicted the return of European software patents. There were some stirrings over the year, but software patents have, for the most part, laid low. It would be foolish to believe that they will do so forever, though.

It is actually notable, that a retry of introducing software patents through the back door was "dead on arrival" in the EU. I'm talking about the Patent Litigation Agreement = EPLA of course: http://www.europeanvoice.com/archive/article.asp?id=26903

Of course the patent lobby is pushing its backhanded tactics as ever before, but it seems that now also the ministerial council is reluctant to touch anything that has to do with patents, and finally even the commissioner himself is ready to give up. Also notable was the Nokia position in the EPLA hearing: of course they did not denounce software patents in any way, but they were not appreciative of this particular directive, citing their understanding that Nokia is not only a holder of many patents, but often also on the receiving end of lawsuits.

So as Jon says, there is no reason for much rejoicing yet, but if 4 years from now we still haven't seen a major software patent conflict arise within the EU, then in hindsight 2006 was the year when that started. We'll see.

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