Battleangel

European politicians have thrown out a controversial bill that could have led to software being patented. The European Parliament voted 648 to 14 to reject the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive. The bill was reportedly rejected because, politicians said, it pleased no-one in its current form.

Responding to the rejection the European Commission said it would not draw up or submit any more versions of the original proposal.

The FFII-UK and many others feared the that the passing of the bill would lead to Europe following the US and allowing business processes to be patented.

This has led to online store Amazon patenting and protecting its one-click shopping system.

Big technology firms, such as Philips, Nokia, Microsoft, Siemens, and telecoms firm Ericsson, continued to voice their support for the original bill.

Source: BBC

Finally, one has some use for the United States, serving as a bad example. But I fear that with time, and intensive lobbying the corporations may get their way here too. At least no people are aware, and it will be reasonably difficult to sneak a future version of the law by the people and their representatives.