European software patent update
European software patent update
Posted Jan 29, 2005 15:15 UTC (Sat) by rankincj (guest, #4865)Parent article: European software patent update
What does the existing directive have to say about large (e.g.) U.S. corporations who wish to enforce their home-grown software patents in Europe? Would they have to resubmit their thousands of patents for "proper review" ("Technical contribution? Good. Next!") or would it be a more blatant kind of rubber-stamping?
Posted Jan 30, 2005 23:51 UTC (Sun)
by gdt (subscriber, #6284)
[Link]
The process for approval of patents is a bureaucratic procedure and can be modified without reference to the European Parliament. You can expect the US administration to tie the wholesale recognition by the EU of US patents to a future EU-US trade negotiation. Just as the US has recently done with Australia as part of the AUSFTA, and hopes to do in the forthcoming negotiations with China.
European software patent update