As for the community patent

I was representing FSFE, and was at an SME breakfast because FSFE is a member of the CEA-PME
SME Federation.

No one questioned my assertion that SMEs were against software patents.  Indeed, the chair
confirmed it (which surprised me since he was a pro-swpat MEP).

...but maybe he would say he's against software patents but that he supports
computer-implemented inventions.  To have a meaningful discussion about this, you really have
to be able to agree on terminology at the beginning :-/

The best way to do that is to bring a few specific patents and then avoid existing terms
completely by just talking about "this type of patent".  Q&A sessions don't really give you
the opportunity for that.

Still, if we stay quiet, we give the Commission a justification to say that they discussed X
issue and nobody complained about software patents.  So even when we can't make a difference,
it's useful to raise an objection.